(Redone) I'm Just Your Problem, Too
by Jazzieloo
Summary: The sequel to my previous story "I'm Just Your Problem, Baby". There is a story with the same title on my profile, but this is the new and official one. Things have been revised and redone to make things better and go smoothly. Be advised that there will be potentially triggering things in the story. rated M for language and future situations. NOT smut, sorry guys.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the only time I will add this.**  
 **If you have not read my other story _I'm Just Your Problem, Baby_ this will likely make little to no sense. It also does not center around the AT characters. You have been warned.**

Let the record show that I am adding this disclaimer at the beginning.  
Many topics that will be brought into this story may be disturbing or triggering to some readers. Please be cautious as you read.

Also, I do not own any original characters from AT, nor any references to anything else in the story. All i have are the characters I created, the places, and scenarios.

Ah, usually I put what songs I listened to while writing this, right?

To be honest, it was mostly just 'whatever's on the radio' and then I just stuck the songs I liked into a nice little playlist. But I'll still stick 'em in there.

 _Friends - Justin Beiber/ Bloodpop_

 _Havana - Camilla Cabello_

 _Sorry not Sorry - Demi Lovato_

 _Ready for it - Taylor Swift_

 _Mi Gente - Beyonce/Willy Williams/ J Balvin_

 _Now or Never - Halsey_

 _Walls Could Talk - Halsey_

 _Bad at Love - Halsey_

 _Text ur Number - Fetty Wap/ DJ Envy/ DJ Sliink_

 _Hey Hey. My My - Fjord (Cover)_

 _Are You That Somebody - Lynn Olsen (Cover)_

 _Rich Love - One Republic/ Seeb_

* * *

It's kind of crazy how much the world can change. Just when you think humanity has done it all, they'll pull something out and top themselves. And it all happens so fast. I mean, most people don't think it's that fast. There's only minor differences in the span of their lives. Maybe one or two new technologies, one or two wars. Come on, though; think about it. In the span of two thousand years, civilizations rose, fell and allowed new ones to rise in its place. Hundreds of wars, _billions_ die, billions more are born. Humanity went from huddling around tiny fire pits in damp caves to building towers that touched clouds. That's barely a fraction of how long human beings have even roamed on this plant. And that's barely a fraction of how long this planet has existed. Forgoing all the 'science vs religion' arguments, it's obvious the Earth is pretty fucking old, right?  
It was on this thought that I looked back at the past couple hundred of years, sipping on a cold mojito. How much do you think could change in two hundred and thirty six years? I mean, two hundred and fifty years before the twenty first century even began, the United States wasn't even a unified country yet. By the dawn of the second millenia, the US had a population of over two hundred forty million. In the span of two hundred and fifty years, the United fucking States of America had given themselves independence, fought themselves, fought in countless wars and risen as one of the worlds super powers. Two hundred and thirty six years… it was a long time if measured by human life, for sure. The world… it was different. Even after being alive as long as I was, getting to live to a time that was once considered the future was always interesting.  
People had some things right about how the future would look. The buildings now were tall. I mean, like, tall. I think the average tower was around 1,500 ft tall. And the tall towers? You couldn't even see the tops of those. Things hadn't changed too much, though. The towers stayed in the cities. Sure, there were a few more cities in the world now, but there were still rural areas and the suburbs. There were some days where I could walk around and almost forget two hundred and thirty six years passed, but everything was… newer. Houses were built to be shinier and flashier than before. Even 'retro' houses usually got renovated to fit the new style. Besides, most older houses were falling apart and architecture was becoming more and more reliable. Why take the risk that your walls might crease or your roof might need new shingles? That'd make it unpresentable. Couldn't have that.  
People thought that flying cars would be a regular thing a long time ago. They were around for a brief time, but the entire world saw a 15% raise in the death rate. All due to aerial car accidents. Another 5% were products of accidents, poor people on the ground that couldn't afford the cars that got crushed when they fell out of the sky or people working in their offices when a teenager couldn't figure out how to brake fast enough and busted through the glass windows.  
When you look up at the sky now, you can see these little moon-like structures in the sky, little smaller than the actual moon though. Those were the space colonies, they started making those about sixty years ago. I think around 200 people could live on one at the moment, and there were ten of them floating around. They were working on being fully self-sufficient. They had their own oxygen, but they still needed regular shipments of water and food up there. Don't ask me how they planned on making water. I left that science shit up to my wife and her brother. Shit man, the only thing I know is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.  
Ah! The resurgence of older music, however, was quite welcome. For a while, music from the past died out. When it was old, it was old. These days, however, people started bringing the old stuff back out. It was 'retro' or whatever. And when I say old stuff, I mean all the older stuff. I'm talking the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and oh-so-glorious 2000s. We got everything from Dean Martin to Justin Bieber playing on the radio.  
I took another sip from my straw, watching the orange and purple sunset on the far horizon outside my glass window. I glared at my glass as I heard the awful sound that told me drink was finished. The light sound of a piano resonating from the small speaker to my left, but my ears focused on the sound of approaching footsteps.  
"Light of my life?" I called teasingly, a small smile on my face. "Is that you?"  
"I know you know it's me, Marceline," Bonnibel said, a laugh in her voice as she walked up behind my chair. I looked up, putting my glass next to the stereo. I grinned up at her, my head lazily falling to the side.  
"What's up?" I asked, watching her silk-like strawberry blonde hair moving slightly as she pushed a strand behind her ear.

"I just got off the phone with Nathan," She informed me, leaning on the back of my chair. "I thought you might like to know that your daughter has safely arrived at school."

"And the twins?" I asked, standing up and turning to face her. She smiled as I stepped towards her and leaned to kiss her on the temple.  
"Setting up their rooms," Bonnibel replied, humming contently while I looped my arms around her waist. I pulled her to me, running my nose along the side of her forehead. Her hands slipped around my back and held me close to her. "You're sure you're okay with not helping them move in?"  
"They're already there." I noted.

"We both know you could still show up with time to spare," She simply replied. She held me in silence for a moment before I spoke again.  
"I'm sure." I said, with a small nod. "She wouldn't have wanted me there, and I have work to do. I'll just have to hope she knows better than to get into trouble, without me giving her a lecture the moment she gets freedom."  
"Hmmm," Bonnibel hummed, in quiet agreement. "You don't have to do work right now, do you?"  
"I should eventually get back to it," I said, leaning back to raise an eyebrow at her. I grinned as she wiggled her eyebrows at me. "But I suppose I can make time for my darling wife, instead."  
"Good answer, babe," she said, laughing lightly. In a swift motion, I had the inside of her knees in one hand and her back in the other. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she kissed the side of my face. I carried her to our rather obnoxiously large bed, and threw her.  
"Years of practice," I laughed, leaning down to kiss her on the mouth.

* * *

Kaylee Von Engel-Schlimm Twenty-one years old

I was glad it wasn't cold yet as I walked into my favorite coffee shop. Northern states tend to cold faster than the southern one did. Much faster. I appreciated the time I could walk outside with shorts and a t-shirt on.  
Swinging the glass door open, my nostrils were swiftly invaded with the smell of hot coffee beans. I scrunched my nose in mild displeasure. I was a coffee drinker, but the smell made me nauseous. Plus, I liked lots of cream in mine. The familiar wooden interior hadn't changed a bit since I'd left school last spring. Oh-so-cleverly named 'The Bean', the shop had a super hipster feel. Yellow wood floors, brown paneled walls lined with various black and white or sepia tone photos of landscapes. Wooden tables with thin black metal legs surrounded by one or two wooden chairs with thin black metal legs. A few raggedy carpets that probably cost a small fortune.  
The line wasn't too long, only three people, as I stepped in. I walked to take my spot in line and wait my turn. I looked around, wondering if I'd see any familiar faces. There were a few people I could consistently recognize last year; a dark boy with long dreads, usually wore a pair of rose-colored sunglasses and never took them off, a girl with a blonde pixie cut and way too much eyeliner and another person who I was never completely sure of their gender and eventually I had decided that I didn't actually care and that it had no effect on my life, so I stopped staring and trying to guess.  
None of these people, however, were sitting in the small store. Maybe I had gotten here first, maybe some had graduated or transferred. It didn't really matter all that much, I wasn't ever going to meet any of them. It just felt nice to have some consistency.  
I made to pull my phone out of my small, over-the-shoulder purse when something caught my eye. There was a person, a girl, sitting in the corner. In the chair I usually sat in, the plush grey one with the thick arms and a small side table to the left.

 _Fuck._ I thought for a moment. _She better not try to claim that as hers._

I was about to glare at her before I even actually saw her. I decided to evaluate before throwing my passive-aggressive hate at her. She was a tall, long-limbed girl with pale skin. Her hair was long, black and thrown into a messy low ponytail. In a split-second, I realized that the girl was actually pretty. Like, really pretty. I was borderline dumbstruck for a second. She had a long face, with a somewhat sharp jawline. The tips of her ears stuck out from the stray hairs around her face. She had one a pair of square black glasses that just barely hung onto the bridge of her nose as she looked down at her phone. Her skin looked incredibly smooth and unblemished.  
Her eyebrows were thin and long, one seemingly arched in question as she tapped keys on her touch thin lips were pursed and her nose scrunched. She was wearing a simple cotton grey t-shirt, with a red and black flannel tied around her waist. She had on only a pair of jean shorts, meaning the majority of her long, toned legs were on display. One of her converse covered feet was propped up on the small woven ottoman in front of her.  
"Next," I barely heard the boy at the counter say. I quickly ripped my eyes away from the girl, turning to look at him. He was young, no more than eighteen years old. I guessed that he was probably a high schooler, a local. He had shaggy, unkempt hair and his face was full of adolescent acne and pock scars.

"Ah, I'll get two large french vanillas coffee, one black and one with cream," I said, without having to look at the menu. "And a medium macchiato."  
"Is that all?" He asked, trying to seem interested and friendly. I didn't blame the boy; it was 4pm. Usually people that got coffee at this time were cranky and I'd have bet a hundred dollars they weren't all that patient with anyone.  
"Yes, please," I said, with a small smile. "Thank you."  
"Name?" He asked, returning my smile, appreciatively. He picked up two large styrofoam cups, readying his sharpie.  
"Haylee." I replied. He quickly wrote my name on the two cups before picking up a slightly smaller one and writing again.  
"Alright, that will be…" he hit a few buttons on the screen in front of him. "Twelve ninety five."  
"Here you go," I said, handing him a ten and a five quickly, already knowing the price. He popped open the register and handed me my change. "Thank you."  
"Have a good day." He said with a smile. I took my change and quickly dumped it in the cup labeled 'TIPS'. I walked to go sit down, not in my usual spot. I chose a tall stool near the pick-up counter.  
I pulled out my phone and saw I had four texts; three from my sister and one from my brother.

 _ **3:48 Kaylee** : do you think we should make Quinn pay for groceries too?_  
 _ **3:50 Kaylee** : I mean, he's an adult now, so he should._  
 _ **3:50 Kaylee** : I'm telling him. _

_**4:02 Quinn:** PLEASE hurry back. If Kaylee tells me that I can't eat if I don't buy my own groceries one more time, I'll cut my ears off_

I chuckled to myself as I read my texts.I quickly started typing out a reply to my sister.

 _STOP antagonizing him. He'll pay for his own groceries._

I sent my text, hearing the little 'wooshing' noise as it was delivered. I put my phone down on the counter and began looking around the shop again. There were only five people in there, three of them waiting to get their coffee ahead of me.I looked back over to my corner to see if that spot stealer was still there, and my heart nearly stopped.  
Blue eyes greeted mine. A small bit of recognition flashed as they realized they were looking at someone else, then a quirked eyebrow. I quickly picked my phone back up, my face flush, and pretended to be scrolling through something interesting.  
I was faintly aware of the other customers being called to get their drinks as heat rushed to my face. I was just caught staring. Even though I'd likely never see this girl again, it was embarrassing. I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come back out. It felt like hours before my name was called. As soon as I heard the 'Hay', I jumped to the counter. Despite my best judgement, my eyes decided to hazard another small look in her direction and I never regretted anything more in my entire life because I saw a small knowing smirk before I grabbed my cardboard cup holder. I muttered a small thanks and walked to the door. Well, more than a walk, it was a small step away from sprint.  
I pushed the glass door open, my eyes peeking from the corner, sneaking one last look. As if my body wanted me to die of embarrassment. I blinked when I realized she wasn't there anymore, but continued walking down the sidewalk, the shop leaving my line of vision when I turned the corner.

* * *

"I'm back!" I shouted, the front wooden door squeaking a bit as I shut it with my foot. My sister, Kaylee was standing over a few boxes in our living room, her eyes slightly glazed with fatigue. She looked over at me and relief washed over her face as she saw what I was holding. Kaylee was my twin sister, although I was twenty minutes older. I suppose if you looked at the two of us closely enough, you could tell. We had the same almond-shaped eyes that people often said looked like we were glaring. We had the same small, round ears and both our upper lips were slightly thicker than the lower. She had a small black birthmark right under her left eye, while I had a similar one underneath my right.  
That's where the similarities ended, however. My sister was, without a doubt, the prettier of us two. She had short, wavy warm black hair that she usually kept cut just underneath her ears. Her eyes were a dark, dark brown, sitting underneath thin, expressive eyebrows. Her teeth were the perfect sparkling white and her skin was creamy, clear and always blemish free.  
She had a curvy figure as well, with shape in pretty much all the right places. It didn't surprise me when puberty hit the two of us, and boys were instantly drawn. She became like a piece of dangling meat in a wolves den when we turned thirteen. She filled out into her full hour glass body quickly, her bust growing from barely an A to double D's in the span of three months. Her waist thinned a bit, accentuating her newly acquired breasts and her already round butt. She was a highly sought after commodity. I, on the other hand, was mostly unremarkable. My fiery red hair, that fell in waves just between my shoulder blades, was usually kept in a ponytail. There was one stubborn alfalfa just above my forehead that refused to get swept with the rest, so I had to make sure I remembered to bobby pin it in the morning. I was freckly beyond all hell. I couldn't name a single spot on my body that didn't house a cluster of light brown freckles. My eyebrows were thicker than my sisters and closer to dark brown than red. They sat above a pair of forest green eyes.  
I wasn't exceptionally thin, but I wasn't overweight either. I wasn't curvy, but I wasn't a board. I was exceptionally unremarkable, I think. Besides my hair. Hard not to notice fire red hair, but that was about all there was to notice about me.  
" _Thank_ the fucking lord," She grumbled, as I sat the cup holder on the coffee table of our living room. She plopped herself down into the cushions of our long couch, holding her hand out as I picked her cup up. I handed it to her and sat down beside her. "Quinn! Haylee's back! With coffee!"  
"Yeah, I know, I heard her," my brother grumbled. I heard him emerge from his room and walk over. My sister and I had lived in this apartment for three years, since sophomore year. It wasn't too small, which was great for it's lower price. The front door immediately led to our living room, which housed a long brown couch facing a TV. The TV sat underneath two small white-framed windows on the same wall as the door. The couch (which very nicely had a corner that made it slightly longer, although it made the entrance to the kitchen smaller) was pressed against the half-wall separating the room from the kitchen. There was a wooden coffee table in between the TV and the couch.  
The kitchen was small, but accomplished what was necessary. We had a small kitchen table, which saw almost, with two small plastic chairs. The kitchen was across from it, pressed against the wall. The counters were a dirty yellow color. Ugly, but they were easy to clean. Our electric stove was just a little further away, with a small hood over it that could turn on a light or fan. The wall met another at a ninety degree angle, and there was a bit more counter against it, going until it met the half-wall.  
If you walked straight in from the front door, there as a small hallway. My room was the first on the left, right next to Kaylee's. Quinn's room was across the hall from mine, behind the kitchen, further down was the small bathroom. There was another door at the end of the hallway, leading outside to the wooden deck. We were the last floor on a five story apartment building, which was nice because we could go outside and look at the night without seeing the bottom of someone else's deck.

"Jeez, I'm going to miss not hearing you shout all the time," our younger brother said, coming in and sitting on the edge of the couch. He reached over and took the last cup, taking a quick test sip. "I forget how loud you can be."  
"You could have talked Mom into letting you stay in the dorms," Kaylee just said, with a small snort.

"Please, even if I wanted to stay in a dorm," he rolled his eyes, leaning back. "She'd have a heart attack. The thought of me spending a year sharing a room with someone I don't know? Awful. Stroke inducing. Besides her, I don't like the idea all that much either."  
"Then don't whine," Kaylee replied, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You're lucky that, as a freshmen, you even get to live off campus. You should be thanking your gorgeous older sisters for giving you this amazing living situation."  
"Alright, alright," Quinn said, chuckling lightly, holding his hands up in surrender. "You're right. Thank you, guys. Seriously."  
"I honestly just can't wait to get you drunk," Kaylee laughed. "I didn't get to corrupt you in high school because you were barely pubescent. But now… mwa ha ha ha!"  
Kaylee tapped her fingertips together while she faked an evil laugh. I shook my head and laughed, my muscles feeling like mush in our couch. Unpacking sucks, especially when your over-protective mother sends you off with basically doomsday prep. Cereal, cans of food, blankets, a small portable power generator, tons of water… and I think she may have sent us each a pocket knife.

"Corrupt me?" Quinn laughed, heartily. "You do know that I'm _your_ brother, right? Even Haylee can be pretty bad sometimes. It's the blood."  
"Hey!" I interjected. "I barely even go out."  
My brother, Quinn, was eighteen. Three years younger than the two of us, he had lived at home for my previous years of college. It was nice to have someone to fill up the empty third room, that my parents paid the rent for just so that we didn't live with a stranger. God forbid they were some weirdo.  
Quinn looked a bit more like me, but in a boy-way. And in a better looking way, if I'm being honest. He had curly bright red hair, that he kept in a evenly maintained undercut. He'd never admit it, but he probably spent just as much time on his hair as Kaylee. He had freckles too, but not nearly as much as mine. They speckled across the bridge of his nose and spread under his eyes, but that was about it.  
He had thick, bushy eyebrows that managed to express his emotions perfectly. His eyes were a dark hazel, an in between of Kaylee's brown and my green. He had a bit of a baby face, but a strong pronounced jawline. He was paler than I was, but not unhealthily so.

"Speaking of going out!" Kaylee quickly announced, setting down her drink and pulling phone out from inside her shirt. She quickly tapped a few things and did a small scroll. "Do you guys want to go to a party tonight?"  
"We've been here for less than half a day." Quinn said, raising an eyebrow.  
"I've got connections, young one," she said, teasingly rolling her eyes. "I know a guy in a frat. I'm not sure which, honestly I couldn't care less. But they throw great parties."  
"Damn," Quinn said, appreciatively. "Teach me your ways, master."  
"In time, padawan," Kaylee replied, laughing. "Seriously, though, let's go."  
"I'm in," Quinn said, with a small shrug.  
"Haylee?" She said, turning to me. I pursed my lips and she began to whine. "No. Come on! Please? It's Quinn baby's first day of college. Are you really going to make him spend it sitting at home?"  
"You guys can go without me," I noted, frowning.  
"No we can't," Quinn said, narrowing his eyes at me. He jokingly waggled his finger at me. "What would Mom say if she found out we left you home alone?"  
"I've been home alone dozens of times," I said, rolling my eyes. "And how would she find out?"  
"Haylee, just come," Kaylee pleaded. "I want to have fun as siblings. The dynamic trio! Back together, and drunker than ever."

"We never got drunk together in high school," I pointed out.

"This is Quinn's _first_ day," Kaylee continued to argue. "You'd deny your little brother the joy of going out with his awesome senior sisters?"  
She looked at me with her puppy eyes, sticking out her lower lip and I sighed, defeated.  
"Fine," I said, and she squealed. "But only if we finish unpacking."  
"Go, go, go Quinn!" She shouted, pushing our brothers shoulder as she quickly stood up and made to go back to boxes. Quinn stood up a split second after her and sprinted to his room.

* * *

"Just one, Haylee!" Kaylee shouted at me, pushing a small glass shot glass towards me. "One."  
"How am I going to take care of you?" I said, raising an eyebrow as she messily poured vodka into the glass.

"Just one," She said, shaking her head. "Just to loosen you up. C'mon! Me and Quinn will do it with you."  
"You make it sound like such a burden." I said, dryly. I sighed, taking the small glass in my hand. I could smell it and I had to hold back a small gag. "Fine. Let's do this."  
"Yeah!" Quinn shouted, holding his glass towards Kaylee. She eagerly poured alcohol into, before filling her own and holding it up. She gave us a small nod and we all lightly tapped our glasses against the coffee table and then met each other with a light clank, before throwing back our heads and dumping the liquid down our throats.  
The burn threatened to make me hurl it back up, but I swallowed a bit of dry air and bit it back.  
"Gah!" I groaned, squinting my eyes. I stuck my tongue out. "That shit is awful."  
"It's vodka," Kaylee laughed. "It's not meant to be pleasant."  
"What… what time are we supposed to go?" Quinn said, blinking twice to focus himself.

"Uh…" Kaylee picked her phone off the table, nearly dropping it in her drunken haze, and squinted at the screen. "Now. Party starts at 10."  
"What time is it?" Quinn asked, standing up and smoothing his shirt. He had on a black and white geometric patterned polo shirt and a pair of simple white-wash jeans, along with some plain white vans.

"10:15," Kaylee responded, with a small, lopsided smile. "We're right on time."  
Getting out of the house was a bit of ordeal. Kaylee was wearing some of her tallest black high heels and could barely get down the stairwell. Quinn caught her a couple times, but he was a boy and wasn't careful enough with her outfit. She was wearing a pair of black leggings and a matching black crop top that had about a million strings, which poor Quinn had accidently got his finger stuck on, effectively pulling his sisters shirt down.  
He had been mortified, quickly looking away and yelling for me to come help as she laughed hysterically and shouted 'we used to bathe together, Quinn!'. The walk wasn't as much of a disaster but definitely not any easier. Kaylee was clearly already wasted, and Quinn was starting to feel the effects of his handful of shots. Kaylee told pretty much every single girl we passed that they were beautiful and to have a wonderful night, which earned her many thank yous and returned compliments. Quinn struggled to follow me, getting distracted by everything going around. He had only been to visit us three or four times, since our Mom didn't like the idea of a young boy at a University at night. It was busy, even if there was still a week before classes actually even started. Drunken people stumbled around, much like my sister, sometimes followed by someone like myself trying to keep them from getting themselves killed. I was surprised we were still alive when Kaylee shouted 'here!' and turned us to a large, loud house. Music blasted from the inside of the house, people spilling out in all directions. Kaylee aggressively pushed past a few people and led us through the front door.  
Quinn turned to me and shouted something, but I couldn't hear over the music and the chatter. It reeked of beer and sweat. I could barely move, sandwiched between my siblings. Kaylee giggled like a small child and Quinn continued to try to speak to me.

"Derrick!" Kaylee suddenly shouted, lifting an arm to wave to someone. She turned to me and quickly said; "I'll be right back! I'm going to say hi!"  
She ducked into the crowd and disappeared. I already knew that there was a strong chance that I might not see her for the rest of the night. Hopefully she'd be in the right mind to text me if she needed anything.  
Behind me, Quinn continued to talk, so I turned to him and shouted "I can't hear you!"  
He blinked at me before mouthing the word 'What?' at me. I sighed and gestured for him to lean down to me. He wasn't a super tall boy, around five foot eight, but he was still three inches taller than me.

"I'm going to get a drink," I shouted into his ear, exasperated. He leaned back slightly to show me that he was nodding before leaning down towards me.  
"I think some girls are eyeing me," he shouted back, pointing with his eyes to a small group of girls giggling and glancing towards us, red cups in their hands. "I'm going to say hi."  
"Happy first day of college!" I yelled back. He smiled at me as I patted him on the back and walked away.  
Navigating through the crowd of hot, sweaty bodies wasn't as hard as I originally thought. Most of them were too drunk to notice if I pushed them a little too hard, and if they did I could just duck behind someone else. Still, it took me a while to find my way to the kitchen. The house was huge, I guess it was to be expected. Frat house. When I finally stepped onto a tile floor, I sighed a small breath of relief. The kitchen wasn't nearly as packed and there was a large assortment of alcohol sitting in a tub of ice, along with a keg. I stepped over, examining the contents of the ice tub before pulling up a rather large bottle of strawberry lemonade svedka. I walked over to the counter and took the plastic carton of lemonade laying sideways and a red solo cup. I nabbed a handful of ice, threw it in the cup and poured some svedka in the cup. I poured in the lemonade afterwards, gave it a few spins and took a spin. I winced.  
A bit strong, but I was probably going to need it. As I went to return the bottle of alcohol, a boy noticed me.  
"Hey," he said, wobbling over to me. He was clearly sloshed, squinting his eyes and pointing a finger at me. "You're… are you related to that… uhm, what's her name… Kay?"  
"Kaylee?" I said, with a sigh.

"Kaylee!" He said, a wide grin spreading across his flushed face. "Yeah! Her! You've got the… the same, like, eye shape. You know what I mean? Kind of sharp and angry."  
"Yeah, I've been told we've got mean eyes," I said, chuckling nervously. The boy was walking towards me, shortening the already uncomfortably close distance. I could smell the thick scent of beer on him. "She's my sister. Twin sister."  
"She's hot," he blurted out, with a small laugh. "Guess it would figure her twin would be too, even if you don't look exactly alike."  
He let out a small burp and stumbled, catching himself on the counter. "You know what… what would be super hot?" He asked, with a smile. "A threesome?" I winced as the answer left me, knowing that instantly I shouldn't have said it even as a joke.  
"A threesome?!" He hush-shouted at me, giggling. "I was gonna… I was gonna say the two of you making out. But, yeah, I can… I can totally do a threesome."  
"Buddy, I think you can barely handle a onesome, right now," a female voice with a light British accent said, behind him. The boy was so close to me, I couldn't see who it was until he turned at the hand on his shoulder. "Beat it, friend. Doesn't seem like she's interested."  
"She asked me," He groaned, exasperated. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes met bright. T boy turned to the girl, stumbling as he did so. She made no move to help steady him. "Butt out."  
"Did you ask this young man to have a threesome with you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and pointing a lithe finger at him.  
"I, uh, no, I didn't," I said, shaking my head as I gathered my thoughts. "I mean, I may have accidentally made a comment about one, but no, I do not want to have a threesome with this man and my sister."  
"You heard her," the black haired girl said, sending the boy an annoyed look. "No threesome."  
"Ugh, tease," he grumbled before he went to stumble away and into the crowd.  
"With you and your sister?" The girl asked, turning back to look at me with a snicker. Currently, I was standing about a foot away from the girl in the coffee shop. The one I had accidentally stared at, and got caught staring at. The girl shook her head as she laughed. "Eugh. I mean, I'm sure your sister's a great gal, but I've never been into promoting incest."  
"Yeah, well, she's a great gal, but I've never really been into incest. Period." I said, some of my tension fading away as she laughed. She leaned her back against the counter, propping both elbows on the tile. "Thank you, by the way."  
"Not a problem," she said, still chuckling to herself. Her black hair was in a messy bun on top of her head. Now that we were closer and her hair was up, I could see that her ears were thoroughly pierced. Her right ear housed only a single red stud, while her left was home to a bat on her ear lobe, five more studs going up the edge of her ear, alternating gold and silver, and a light blue industrial bar, the balls replaced with red metal made to replicate the appearance of an arrow. "Drunk guys always go after pretty girls."  
"He must've been a little too drunk," I snorted, taking a small sip from my drink. The girl was wearing a loose grey tank top, plain black skinny jeans and a pair of yellow-brown Timberland boots. As she went to move from of her hair out of her face, I noticed that she had pattern of black and red music notes twisting around her left arm, just above her elbow. They continued up her shoulder and dove down into her shirt. She had a line of text on her forearm too, but I couldn't read it.  
"Too drunk?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. I simply shrugged and she laughed again. "Something tells me that guy's been too drunk too many times in this lifetime. He's not the only one, though, darling. You should get back to whoever you came with."  
"Well, that would be kind of difficult," I admitted, pursing my lips. "I came with my sister, who ducked into the crowd the moment we got here, and my brother, who I think is currently trying to whore himself out. Over there."  
I lifted a finger to point to my brother, dancing as he was sandwiched between three girls. The girl followed my finger to Quinn and gave an approving laugh.  
"Huh," she simply said, tilting her head as she looked at him. "Kind of want to see your sister now. You've all have got good genes."  
"Listen for a loud voice telling people to do body shots, and you'll find her," I responded jokingly with a small shrug.

"I'd consider it, if I didn't have a friend who fit that description too." She said, looking back at me as she smiled. "She's a real crazy one. Listen, if you've got nowhere to go, I don't mind taking you under my wing."  
"Take me under your wing?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows at her.

"You can hang with me and my friends," she laughed, her mouth spread in a wide grin. "They're nice, I swear. And we don't bite. Or ask for threesomes."  
She paused for a second and seemed to think.  
"Well, we _won't_ ask for a threesome." She added after a moment. "I'm Serana, by the way. So we aren't strangers."  
"Haylee," I responded.

"A pleasure to meet you, Haylee," She said, with a small polite bow of her head. She started to walk out of the kitchen, throwing a grin over her shoulder at me to make sure I was following. "Shall we?"  
She was never more than a step or two ahead of me, throwing a look back at me to ensure I was still following and not lost in the crowd. She pushed through the crowd, making room for me as well. You'd think she'd have a difficult time navigating through the tightly packed crowd of people, but she handled it with such ease that it amazed me a bit. Soon, we found ourselves in the fenced-in backyard. I would be hard-pressed to believe that grass could ever grow in the yard, considering the amount of alcohol that must have seeped into the ground. There was a pool, with cheap looking tile surrounding it.  
As we stepped into open air and began walking down the small set of stairs onto the ground, she turned and shouted to me.  
"I think my friends should be around here somewhere," she informed me, eyes scanning the mass of people for a moment before a small bit of recognition was lit in them. She smiled, turned to me and pointed. "Over there. Come on."  
She led me over to a small group of friends standing near the edge of the pool. A tall boy was lightly swaying with a red cup in one hand and the other holding girl's hand as she danced in small sultry circles, laughing loudly. There were two more boys, one laughing and the other simply sipping on his bottle of beer. Loud dance music blasted as we walked to the group.  
"Oi!" Serana called, waving to her group. The dancing pair paused before large grins spread across their faces. "I've brought a new friend."  
"A new friend?" The boy said, licking his lips slightly. There was a small glint in his eyes that almost seemed predatory, but he was smiling teasingly.  
"Friend, Dean," Serana said, standing in between the two of us as we came to still. "This is Haylee, our lost lamb of the evening."  
"Cheers, mate," the boy spoke with the same light British accent as Serana and laughed as the girl in front of him did a wave and a dance. He was pretty decently tall, a good six or seven inches taller than I was. He had long, curly strawberry blonde hair, tied up into a tight bun on the back of his head. The hair on the sides of his head faded until they became completely shaven just above his ear. "You're a lucky bug tonight, you know? We happen to be the coolest people here."  
"Don't mind him," Serana laughed, pushing him roughly on the shoulder. The boy released the girl in his hand as he caught his balance, chuckling lowly. He was wearing an unzipped dark grey bomber jacket, a white t-shirt and slim light-brown chinos. "This is my cousin, Dean. He's a drunk bastard right now, but he's as harmless as a fly. Just thinks he's a lot funnier than he is."  
"I am very funny, Serana," the boy objected, pouting slightly. The two of them had similar faces, you could see the relation. There was an indescribable charm they both had, as well as the fact that they looked like they could be siblings. Dean had a long, diamond shaped face. His jaw was somewhat wide and his chin thinned a bit sharply. He had thin, long brown eyebrows. Underneath was a pair of light brown eyes, lit with amusement. He also had a rather… odd looking moustache growing upon his upper lip that reminded me of a pedophile. He turned to me, holding out a hand to shake. "Dean, Abadeer. Serana's cousin, as she said. Also, that guy's twin brother."  
He pointed to one of the other boys standing near us with the hand I didn't shake. His grip was solid, though his hand was cold. He gave me a solid shake before releasing me with a grin. Despite my exclusive attractive to people of the my same gender, I had to admit his smile was charming.

"That's Eugene," Serana said, wearing the same grin. Must be a familial trait.

"I can introduce myself," he said, his voice lit with mild amusement. The second boy looked almost exactly his brother, save for his hair being shorter and his face was clean shaven. His bangs were held back with two long pink hair clips hovering above both his temples. He had on a large t-shirt with multiple different patterns and at least six different colors, along with white joggers and a pair of normal looking white sneakers. "Eugene, as she said. "Twin brother, cousin, many also say that I happen to be the best looking of all of us."  
"Who says that?" Serana snorted, rolling her eyes.

"I think we're _all_ attractive." Dean said. He paused for a moment before saying; "in a non-weird, incestuos way. Although I bet someone would pay a lot of money for that."  
"Gross," Eugene faked a gag.

"I might pay money for it," the dancing girl said, still absent-mindedly swaying to the music.  
"That's my body shots friend, Faith." Serana said to me. She wrinkled her nose a bit, but still wore a smile. "Can be a bit crude."  
"Body shots?" The girl, Faith, squealed. She had coffee creamed colored skin, although you could just barely see it underneath how heavily tattooed she was. Her entire left arm was covered with various patterns (thorned vines, some odd blue looking smoke, a few eyes and maybe… a devil?) and more ink was sprinkled around her right. It wasn't possible to see underneath her red form fitting top, but I think there was definitely more on her torso. Her legs were bare, covered only by short jean shorts. She had long, straight black hair that went all the way under her butt. Her eyebrows were long and a bit bushy while still being well-maintained. She had two eyebrow studs on her left eyebrow and I could hazard a guess that she had many ear piercings. "Oh man! Who's doing body shots? How come we haven't done any yet. Let's get new girl to do some!"  
"We'll only do body shots if you start with one on me," The last boy said, with a smile. His teeth were bright white, like the kind you see in a dentist commercial.  
"Ew, Frank, no," Faith said, absolute disgust in her voice and on her face. "Your happy trail is thicker than a rain forest. I don't want your hair in my mouth."  
"And last, but never least, is Frank," Serana said, laughing along with the taller boy. He turned to nod in acknowledgement towards me, his long brown shaggy hair moving with his head. His eyes were a dark color, but they looked they might almost be gold in the light. They were narrower, giving them a slight Asian feel, although I wasn't quite sure which kind. I wasn't very good at telling the difference.  
"We aren't always this dysfunctional," he reassured me, speaking through his full beard. He was taller than the twin brothers, probably around six foot and three inches? Maybe four? Either way, he was a large man, especially since his arms were about as big as my thigh. He pointed between Dean and Faith before saying; "Only when we get both of these guys drunk."  
"Which is like, every fourth day," Dean said, making a face as he held up both his hands, palms up, spilling a bit of his drink.

"We're freshman," Serana responded. "We haven't been here long enough to know how often the two of you will get drunk."  
" _Going_ to be like, every fourth day," Dean corrected himself with a small slur and a giggle.

"I don't think you're drunk enough yet," his brother said, giving him a small nod and pointing to his drink. "Chug."  
"Eugene," Frank groaned, rolling his eyes as Dean noticed the drink in his hand. The longer-haired twin smiled a large, toothy grin before throwing back his drink. " _Why_ do you spur him on like this?"  
"Frank and Faith are cousins," Serana said as we watched Dean throw his cup on the ground and yell out a loud war cry. "Frank and Faith's dads are brothers. Well, technically adoptive brothers, but brothers all the same. It means Frank's super responsible though, since he has to look after her so much. She's got another cousin, a blood cousin, but I'm not really sure where he is."  
"I just happen to be much better at holding my liquor than my cousins," Frank said, with a low chuckle. He was dressed in a buttoned up yellow and dark blue flannel shirt, a small bit of chest hair peaking out, a pair of jeans and unlaced zerpa boots. Even covered by clothes, I could tell he was a muscular guy. "Probably because I'm so much bigger than them. I'm the only one here not made of skin and bones."  
"I bet," I acknowledged with a laugh. "I get it, though. My brother and sister, they can get a bit crazy too."  
"I wish Faith would stop at a bit crazy," Frank shook his head, exasperated. As if to prove his point Faith snatched a bottle of Patron from a boy walking by. He turned around, a furious glint in his eyes, until Faith smiled sweetly at him and stood on her tiptoes to whisper something in his ear. The boy quickly smiled and nodded, before turning to leave. "Faith, please stop doing that."  
"Doing what?" She asked, blinking innocently.

"You know what I'm talking about." He sighed as she took a large swig. "Alright, whatever. Just don't get into too much trouble tonight."  
"I make no promises," She said, pushing Dean on his shoulder. He grunted, confused. She pointed to the ground. "Lay down."  
"What, why?" He asked, confused but still moving to sit on the ground.

"We're going to do body shots," She snorted as he pressed his back against the tile. "Off me?" Dean said, laughing. "Isn't it supposed to go the other way around?"  
"That's sexist," Faith merely responded, as she knelt onto her knees and roughly pulled his t-shirt up with one hand. His abdominal muscles were well defined and smooth underneath his shirt. "Besides, Serana's after you."  
"Uh, no?" Serana said, lifting an eyebrow. Faith poured tequila into Dean's belly button, some spilling off and onto the rest of his stomach. The boy giggled and struggled not to squirm.  
"Spoilsport," Faith grunted back, before leaning down to slurp the alcohol. Dean's giggling rose for a moment before she stood back up with the bottle still in her hand.

"Ugh, I hate how much that tickles," Dean said, sitting up and wiping the wet spots on his stomach with his shirt. "How come it's always me?"  
"Because the thought of doing it with one of my cousins is gross," Faith retorted, easily. "And you're my best friend."  
"That's just because I'm one of the only guys you _can't_ get to sleep with you," Dean groaned, standing up a bit uneasily.

"My charm will win you over one of these days," She said, batting her eyelashes at the tall boy.

"We both know the chances of that are a solid zero percent." He shook his head with a laugh. He blinked twice before frowning. "I need more to drink."  
"More?" Serana questioned.  
"Now, now," Eugene said, with a small teasing 'tsk' in his voice. "Don't deny the man a great time. Come on, brother, I need a drink as well."  
"I'm coming too!" Faith said, cheerfully. Franklin sighed, his shoulders drooping slightly. He turned to Serana and shook his head.  
"I can watch 'em tonight," Frank said, sounding resigned. "I'm pretty sure Dean and Faith will be throwing up and passed out within the next two hours."  
"You sure, big guy?" Serana said. I saw her look at me from the corner of her eye. "I don't need you to, you know."  
"Nah, I know," He responded, waving a lazy hand at her. He started to walk after his much louder friends, offering me a small smile before he left. "You do it most nights anyways."  
"Ah," Serana couldn't get out her thought before Frank disappeared into the sea of people. She scratched the back of her head and offered me an uneasy (yet still charming) smile. "So…"  
"Hmm?" I hummed, waiting for her to speak.

"Uh…" She frowned when there was a large 'BANG' and excited yelling. "Do you want to, maybe, just get out of here?"  
"And go where?" I asked.

"Uhm… I don't know," She shrugged. "We could just walk around until we think of something. It'd beat being here, anyways. It's loud and smells like piss and booze."  
"Alright." I agreed, with a small nod. She blinked at me seemingly surprised.  
"Alright?" She repeated, as a question. "Huh. I thought I was going to have to actually think of something creative."

* * *

Walking down the street, late at night, with only the light of a few spread out street lamps was not how I had expected to spend the first night of my senior year. It wasn't all that bad, though.  
"I've known those guys pretty much since birth," Serana said, shaking her head as she talked about her friends. "Sometimes I can't take how crazy they can get though. I mean, we all move at our own pace, but… well, I wouldn't enjoy waking up with a hangover as much as they do."  
"Not a big drinker?" I asked, walking a step or two behind her. She had her hands laced behind the back of her head and walked with a confident gait that seemed out of place for a young girl in the middle of a dark night.  
"Nope," She said, popping her 'P'. "I don't feel the need to get steaming drunk and acting numpty all the time. Keeping my wits about me is much preferable."  
She turned her head slightly to look at me.  
"How about you?" She asked, slowing down half a beat to walk alongside me. "Seeing as how you're currently able to walk in a straight line, I'd say you're not lost in a drunken stupor."  
"Ah… well, I guess I don't mind getting drunk once in awhile," I said, shrugging slightly. "But I...uh, I just become a kind of different person when I drink."  
"Different?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.  
"Just… just crazy." I said, scrunching my eyebrows as I remembered past events. "It's usually not very pretty."  
"I find that hard to believe, love," She laughed loudly, stretching her arms out over her head. "Someone as gorgeous as you must have to work pretty bloody hard to get there."  
"I am far from gorgeous, but thank you," I said, laughing alongside her. "I don't have to try all that hard. Two or three drinks and 'Dark Haylee' comes out."  
"Are you referring to your drunken self as some sort of alter ego?" She laughed again, letting her arms fall to her sides. "So, what, right now I'm talking to Anakin but if I pour booze down you, you'll become Darth Vader?"  
"Pretty much, yeah," I snorted as I laughed. "But only if Darth Vader tried to take off his clothes every five minutes."  
"Huh," she let out a small hum of approval. "Well, if you ever need to let loose I'm your gal."  
She paused, halting in her place and frowned. She let out a long, loud groan and shook her head.  
"Ugh! I sounded like one of those creepy frat boys." She shivered in mock horror. "I just meant I'd watch over you if you wanted me to."  
"Why?" I felt somewhat suspicious as to why this girl was so nice to me when we were only a step or two away from being strangers. "We've only known each other a day."  
"Because I like interesting people." She shrugged lightly.

"That doesn't explain why," I twisted my mouth into a small frown, kicking a stray branch on the ground. "I'm hardly interesting."  
"Hate to break it to you, love," She said, with a light laugh. Her eyes were bright as she turned to head to speak to me. "But I'm pretty sure it's up to me who I find interesting."  
"I feel like you've got enough interesting in your life, either way." I laughed back. She looked at me in question, confused. "Your friends. They're a bit crazy, but they seem fun."  
"Ah." She nodded knowingly. "They're great guys, and definitely fun. But like I said, I've known them since we were brats. Knowing someone that long… well, it's brill and all I suppose, but I know them too well sometimes. All our parents were friends, so it's like our little… 'pack'. Things don't need to always be exactly the same though, you know?"  
"I can understand that," I responded. "My parents always mostly kept to themselves. It didn't rub off too much on us kids though. Quinn and Kaylee are incredible extroverts, but even I can get bored of doing the same things with my siblings every day. My mom probably wanted us to stay shut up in the house forever like she did, though."  
"Mums," Serana said, lightly rolling her eyes at a thought. "Can't live with them, can't live without them."  
"Honestly," I hummed in agreement. "Love her, but she can be… overbearing. To say the least."  
"I could never give _that_ woman the satisfaction of feeling affection for her," she grumbled, mostly to herself. She turned to me and frowned. "I swear, the only thing we have in common is the grin. And it's not even hers."  
"The grin?" I questioned.  
"No way you haven't noticed it, sweetheart," she said, suddenly throwing a 10000 gigawatt smile my way. I could see her lopsided, easy grin even in the dark. Her teeth seemed so white they generated light on their own, sharp canines poking out ever so slightly. "It's natural charm. Family trait."  
"Oh," I said, blinking twice. Her grin widened after a moment of silent, and I felt my face become flush as I realized I was staring. "Your cousins have it to. It's a bit different, though."  
"I suppose it's a circumstance of sex, personality, and the fact that neither I nor Eugene has bloody awful pedo mustache." Serana snickered, her face scrunching in a kind of cute way. One side of her lip raised as she laughed, her eyebrows scrunching and her nose wrinkling.  
"You three look so alike," I noted, as she started to calm her laughing down. "I could guess Eugene and Dean are twins, but you could pass as their triplet sister."  
"'S what happens when a pair of twin shag and end up having kids." She explained, light amusement in her voice. "We pretty much share the same amount of DNA as real siblings. Even if the two of them are bleeding idiots."  
We continued to walk along the sidewalk, chatting about nothing in particular. She told me about a time in high school that Frank had gotten so plastered he'd fallen asleep in the bathroom of a random house and no one could manage to pick up the big boy. They'd had to call one of his older brothers, who made sure to thoroughly lecture them all before slinging Frank over his shoulder with ease, and bringing them all home.

She told me about another time when she was still a young child and she had gotten into an argument with Dean. "It was about something inconsequential," she said, "like who could pick their boogers faster or something". The argument escalated until Dean tried to hurl a fist at her. He missed, but it still pissed her off, so she tackled him and started wailing. Then Eugene, sensing his brother was in peril, tackled her. The twins father caught all of them before Eugene could swing. The man merely had to walk over and say 'you can only keep fighting if I can join in'. There wasn't a high chance he'd actually lay his hands on children, but he was scary enough that the slight possibility made them instantly release each other and run.  
Serana chatted and told stories with such animation that it was hard to miss any details. She acted out every part, everyone got their own separate voices. Her hands were in constant, smooth motion. She was pretty much always laughing, seemingly finding everything about life hilarious.  
She was beginning to tell another story, one about how she had gotten in trouble in middle school for 'dick-kicking a particularly offensive arsehole', when she stopped abruptly and blinked up a driveway.

"Oh. Huh. I didn't even realize where we were." She said, turning to look at me. She jutted a thumb towards the house connected to the driveway. "This is my abode."  
It was a pretty normal looking house, although it seemed a bit too well taken care of to really be this close to a college campus. It was three stories high, made with light red bricks. Up the driveway was a wide white garage attached to the side of the house. The front door sat to the left most side of a fenced-in wooden porch. There were stairs up to the porch, a small dirt walkway curving from the driveway.  
"Well, so much for late-night walking, I suppose," She said, beginning to walk up the driveway. I felt a small pang of disappoint as she huffed.

"I'll, uh, see you arou-" I started to say beginning to turn my feet to walk away.  
"Are you daft?" She spoke quickly, turning to give me an incredulous look. "Do you honestly think I'm going to let a girl walk around, late at night, completely by herself? Come in, you can sleep here."  
"What," I answered, dumbly, standing in place as I stared at her.  
"You stuff wool in your ears when I was turned around?" She frowned at me. She motioned for me to follow her with a small nod of her head. "Come on."  
"You really don't have to," I spluttered out, my face heating for some reason. I guess the reason was probably that this obnoxiously gorgeous girl (who also happened to seem like a fun person) was inviting me to her house. I tried to calm down as I reminded myself that she likely saw me as some sort of friend, like most girls would assume. Not an individual who was ridiculously attracted to her. "I'll be fine, my place isn't even all that far from here. Besides, you could be a serial killer for all I know."  
"If I was a serial killer, don't you think I'd have already simply knocked you out by now," she rolled her eyes, but smiled.

"That's really not reassuring." I just gave her an accusing look. She laughed.  
"Fair enough, love." She smiled brightly at me, and I sighed lightly. "I suppose either you can come in, or you can make me walk you all the way to your house and then all the way back."  
"I-" I started, but she silenced me with a raised eyebrow. I sighed again, more heavily this time. "Fine."  
I felt resigned as I followed her to her front porch, with a small pinch of anxiety. Well, more like a large pinch. Or a whole handful, actually. My heart beat wildly as I stood behind her, watching her easily stick her key into her front door and turn. I thought I heard her chuckle as she pushed open the door and turned to gesture for me to enter.  
"Before you say something," she said, stepping in behind me and closing the door. I heard the lock softly click as I walked through the wooden foyer. "I should warn you that it _is_ nice in here. Nicer than one would expect for a house this close to campus anyways."  
I was confused only for a brief moment. The walls were a plain white color with light red trim. The foyer was a bit long, before the wall on my right ended and the wall on my left gave way to a door I assumed was to the garage.  
The first room I saw was large. The wooden floor of the foyer gave way to soft, beige carpet. There was a long, wooden table a couple feet to the right. Six intricately designed wooden chairs were placed around it, along with a wavy glass bowl holding a handful of apples.  
Past that, further into the room, was clearly the living room. There was a long, black couch with it's back facing me. It could probably fit a solid five people, give or take depending on their size. To its right was a small glass end table, and then a similar black loveseat. There was another comfortable looking brown chair to the left of the couch.  
"My brother lives here too," Serana explained, gently nudging me to continue walking. I felt a flash of embarrassment, realizing I had been standing there staring at everything. "Eugene and Dean, as well. My family… well, I suppose it would be an understatement to simply say that we're wealthy."  
As I walked further in, I noticed a side staircase leading up the the side floor behind the loveseat. There was also a large bar pressed against the rightmost wall. The white counter formed an angular semi-circle, standing below identically placed white cabinets. There was only two metal barstools sitting in front of it.  
There was a light grey coffee table in front of a rather large TV perched on top of a small cabinet, standing in the middle of the living room's seating arrangements. There was a few game systems hooked up to the TV, as well. They sat inside the wooden cabinet with glass doors. There was three tall stands, holding a multitude of games. A bookcase sat a couple yards to the left. The wall on my left ended and gave way to a large kitchen. "I suppose we get the benefit of not living in squalor," Serana continued, walking into her kitchen. "Although, our actual home is much nicer than this."  
"I'd say this is already pretty nice, on it's own," I said, holding back an impressed whistle when I saw her kitchen.  
The counters were made of a sleek black granite, with dark wooden cabinets underneath. They formed an "L" shape, pressing against the wall of the garage and forming a small barrier between the kitchen and living room. The leftmost wall of the house had the same granite counter, along with a rather large and expensive looking stove. The oven just beneath it looked big enough to cook an entire cow. A large double doored white refrigerator was on the same wall as the bookshelf, just inches away from the counter. The island-like counter had a deep, metal sink. I could hear a dishwasher humming lightly, but from where I stood I couldn't see it.  
"You're right," Serana said, walking up to the fridge and swinging open the door. "I suppose I just got used to everything being so… _posh_ , for lack of a better word. My parents are into that super modern style. I can't say I much like it, though. Feels a little too angular for me."  
"I prefer things that are more rustic, personally," I said, watching as she bent over to look at something in the fridge. She grabbed something and her head reappeared. I quickly looked away, hoping she didn't realize I was staring at her. "It's probably because I grew up pretty much in the woods. My house was more cabin-like."  
"Ah, I can get on board with that." Serana responded, with a smile. She gave me an approving nod as she closed the fridge door with her foot, her hands holding a pizza box. "Do you want some? I'm famished. It's meat lovers, if that tempts you."  
"Yeah, I'll have some," I said. "Thanks."  
"Not a problem, love," She smiled, quickly grabbed two plates from a higher cabinet and then beckoned me to follow her with her head. "My rooms this way. Are you a movie watcher?"  
"I watch movies, yeah," I said, with a confused glance. She led me to her room, a door near the dining room table. There were two more doors, one to the right and one to the left. "Can you open this?" She asked. I stepped in front of her and opened the door. She let me walk in first before following. "And I didn't ask if you watch movies. Are you a movie watcher?"  
"What does that even mean?" I asked as I took in my surroundings. The room was fairly simply, but big. A queen sized bed was pressed against the furthest corner from me, with red and black blankets and soft white pillows.  
Next to it was a rather ordinary looking desk, with a laptop placed on top. There was a tall dresser next to the bed, with a few open drawers and clothes on top. On the wall to my left sat a red acoustic guitar and a matte grey standing piano. There was a small TV on the wall just passed it, sitting in front of three plush bean bag chairs. To my right stood a small filled bookcase. There were a couple guitar picks sitting on top of it, as well as some other tools that I couldn't identify. Next to the bookcase were more instruments; two guitars, one electric and the other acoustic, a ukulele, a banjo and… some long wooden thing.

"It's one thing to watch movies, sweetheart," she said, placing the box of pizza and plates on her desk. "It's another thing to take them in; to experience them. To actively search the perfect movie."  
"The… perfect movie?" I asked, hesitantly. She opened the pizza box and swiftly placed two pieces on a plate. She gestured with her eyes that I could get mine, before plopping herself into a bean bag chair. "Does that even exist?"  
"Ah, that's _exactly_ the right question to ask," Serana said, happily. I got my own pizza before going to sit in one of the soft seats as well. "I suppose the answer will differ from person to person. Obviously, considering that movie taste is a matter of opinion. Most aficionados, however, will likely say 'no'. There is no perfect movie. But the search for it opens us up to experience movies that can get close to it."  
"Hmm…" I hummed thoughtfully. "So, what are we experiencing?"  
"Tsk, tsk," Serana said, shaking her head playfully. "What kind of host would I be if I didn't let you pick?"  
"You're going to let me pick?" I asked. Serana took a piece of pizza in her hand. She folded it carefully before promptly shoving half of it in her mouth and swallowing after two bites. "What if I pick an awful movie?"  
"Haylee, Haylee," she said, in mock disappointment. "Even if we haven't known each other long, I feel as though I know you well enough to see that you shouldn't have shit taste. I suppose if you do though… well, I guess I'll have to stop pretending I didn't notice you staring at me in the coffee shop."  
"Oh my god," I squeaked out, my face aflame within a second. I looked down at my pizza as she chuckled. I had completely forgotten that had even happened. "I wasn't- I wasn't staring. You were just, you were in my usual seat."  
"Ah," she said, with a tone of acknowledgement. "So you were hoping to glare me out of my spot. Intimidation. I can't say I saw that coming."  
"I wasn't trying to-" I started.

"So you were just staring?" She asked, holding back a laugh.  
"I was no-"  
"Where are my manners?" She cut me off again quickly. "I was pretending to not have noticed! Pick a movie, love. A good one."  
"I…" I looked up to see she was watching me, expectantly. I let out a small breath, trying to calm my anxiety. "Uhm… then… Star Wars."  
"Good choice, good choice," Serana nodded, seemingly happy with my answer. "Which one?"  
"The first one," I said, resolutely. "A New Hope."  
"A classic, for sure," Serana said, approving. She smiled at me before she took her phone out from the pocket of her jeans. The TV blinked to life in front of us as she did a bit of swiping. "Setting aside how it is simply a cinematic masterpiece, and disregarding the sheer creativity and effort that goes into creating an entire universe like that, I do enjoy the movies. It appeases to the nerdier side of me, I think."  
"That's my entire side," I said, laughing lightly. I took a bite of my pizza, not having fully realized how hungry I was until I could smell it beneath my nose.  
"I can see it," Serana responded, happily munching on her pizza. Her two pieces were done in what seemed like the blink of an eye. "It definitely adds to your appeal."  
"My appeal?" I questioned, taking another bite of my food.  
"Cute girl, wears glasses, kind of shy, nerdy," Serana listed, with a nod. "Boys're super into that. Some girls, too, probably. I'm not sure, I mostly know guys."  
"Everyone's got a type, I guess," I said, swallowing a thick bit of air. The screen on the TV suddenly become alive with movement and Serana let out a satisfied breath. She placed her phone beside her, her eyes glued to the screen before her.

"Everyone does," She agreed. Her eyes quickly glanced towards me, and she chuckled. "Should I pretend again?"  
"Pretend?" I asked, confused. "You're staring, love," She responded. A smirk was on her face as she leaned back in her chair and watched the screen. I felt my face heat up when I realized she was right. I quickly looked at the screen, hoping she wouldn't notice my face.  
"I, uh," I stuttered, blinking as I tried to find a word. She clapped twice and the lights of her room were suddenly shut off.

"Movie time, darling," she simply said. "You can panic afterwards."

* * *

The world was dark. My body felt heavy, my mind groggy. I groaned lightly as I tried to open my eyes, only to be met with more darkness. I felt around my body for my phone.

 ** _2:35 AM (4) Kaylee Engel-Schlimm_**

I blinked when I realized how late it was. I hadn't told Kaylee where I was going. She probably lost her mind for a few hours, before passing out. My back ached slightly from the position I had fallen asleep in. I heard light breathing and turned my phone to find that Serana had also fallen asleep.  
Her head lulled slightly to the side, her long black hair covering some of her face. Her eyebrows were knit together, almost as if she were angry. She mumbled lightly before her head flipped to the other side.  
As I slowly remembered where I was, I realized that I had to pee. Really badly. I held back a hard groan as I stood up, my body protesting. I could vaguely remember Serana telling me that the bathroom was the room to the right.  
I shuffled over to the door, leaving the room. I used my phone to illuminate my path, reaching the door to the bathroom. I quietly swung the door open and felt the walls for a switch.  
The lights turned on, nearly blinding me. I blinked as I looked for the toilet. I nearly fell asleep on top of it, struggling to keep my eyes open throughout the entire process.  
After I sloppily washed my hands, I turned the bathroom light off and left. I walked back towards the door of Serana's room, using the light of my phone again.  
"Hello?" A deep voice called through the dark. I bit back a scream, my spirit jumping out of my skin. I swung my phone around to see what had spoken to me. "Ah! Bright!"  
I was greeted with a startling lit male face. The eyes squeezed shut and the face turned away. I dropped my phone and almost screamed again. The world was dark for moments as my phone fell face down.

"My apologies," The voice said. I could hear small shuffling and my phone was picked up and held before me. I took it, still biting down the terror I had just felt. "A moment, please."  
There was more shuffling, and then a light flicked on. I blinked, again feeling as though I was blinded. When I was able to come to, a young man stood in front of me. He had short black hair, with a neat part on the left side of his head. His skin was pale white, contrasting against the darkness of his hair. He had a small bit of stubble around his jaw, looking as though he hadn't had an opportunity to shave in a while. His eyebrows were thick, furrowed currently as he looked at me.  
His eyes were a pale blue, with small bits of brown floating around. He had large, dark bags under his eyes. He wore a pair of thick, black rimmed glasses. He pushed them up as he cleared his throat to address me.  
"I didn't mean to startle you," He spoke, evenly. He had the same soft accent as Serana. "My sister has never been the type to bring many friends home. I wasn't aware someone was here."  
"Ah, no, it's fine!" I quickly said, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "I'm sorry for suddenly flashing light in your face like that."  
"Don't worry about it," He said, smiling politely. "I think if anyone heard someone call out to them in the pitch black, it'd startle them. Is your phone okay?"  
"Ah," I said, taking a quick look at it. I lifted it to show him, with a soft smile. "Still in one piece."  
"Good," he responded, his voice sounding tired despite his attempt to be polite. "I would have felt like something awful if it had broken because I had startled you."  
"Haylee?" Serana's voice called out, tiredly, as the door to her room slowly creaked open. She groggily rubbed her eyes as she appeared.

"Serana, good evening," her brother said, evenly. Her eyes quickly shot open when she heard his voice.  
"Nathan?" She said, confusion clear on her face. "Why're you home?"  
"It's my house," He said, with a small shrug. "I'm tired, I wanted to rest."  
"You almost never sleep," she snorted lightly. She glanced at me, a small frown on her lips. "What're you two doing?"  
"I startled her, by accident," Nathan explained. As I watched the two siblings talk, it struck me how similar they looked. If it was possible, the two were more similar than Serana with her twin cousins. "I was checking to make sure her phone was okay."  
"Is it?" She asked, eyeing me. "Right as rain," I said, with a small yawn. "I'll let you go back to sleep," Nathan said, politely. "I'm quite tired as well."  
"Thank you," I said, shuffling to walk back into Serana's room. I made my way back to the chair I had been sitting in, half-listening as Serana spoke with her brother briefly.

"Serana," his low voice said. " _Jag sa till dig att inte ta med hemma mellanmål_."  
" _Det gjorde jag inte_ ," she quickly snapped back, her voice almost a hiss. " _Den här tjejen är min vän. Vi tittade på en film och somnade_."  
" _Om du säger det så_ ," her brother responded. I heard a loud yawn. " _Jag går och lägger mig. försök att komma ihåg att uppträda, lillasyster. Leeches tas bort och brinner levande._ "  
" _Snälla dö, bror_ ," she responded grumpily, before closing her door. "You can sleep on the bed, if you want."  
"What?" I responded after a moment, realizing she was now talking to me.  
"The bed," She simply grumbled. "Take it. It's more comfortable."  
"Don't you want your bed?" I responded, sleep threatening to come back.  
"I'm too tired to argue," She merely said, grabbing a pillow from her bed and returning to her bean bag chair. "Just take it."

* * *

"When can I eat again?" The boy said. His boots quietly tapped against the side of the brick building he sat upon, his hands loosely grasping the roof between his legs. He licked his lips in anticipation.  
"Control yourself," The girl standing beside him said, sternly.. Her hands were in the pockets of her jacket. Her sharp eyes surveyed the city before them, gaggles of college students stumbling about in the dark night. "You'll make Father angry if you mess this up."  
"I always clean up after myself," the boy responded, rolling his eyes. His head lulled to the side as he looked below him as a small smile spread across his face. "I can't help myself if I enjoy making a mess sometimes. Have I ever let you down, meas deirfiúr."  
"I suppose not, mo dheartháir níos óige." The sister sighed, before stepping back. She looked down at her brother. "I'm not going to tolerate reckless behavior, however."  
"Tuigim, Sister," the boy said, looking over his shoulder as his sister began to walk away. "Should I bring something for you?"  
"That's not necessary," She said, slowly fading into the dark of the night. Her brother could hear a small smile in her voice. "You enjoy the hunt. Don't let me take away from it."

* * *

Uh… hey. Hey there. It's… uh… it's been a while, hasn't it?  
Ha, in all seriousness though, hello. If you've made it all the way here, chances are you've read IJYPB, and you might've read the first IJYPT that was scrapped. I didn't mention a lot of it before, so I'll just take a moment to address it here.  
The first one was scrapped for many reasons. One was that my laptop, which I had used to write everything on before, just gave up on me. Truth be told, I could have rewritten everything on there almost verbatim since I had done it again not that long ago. Another reason was simply because that story was started by a different me. That sounds kind of dramatic like that, but that was started over two years ago. While I wouldn't mind continuing a story that was started a long time ago, that would really only be in the case of me having continually been writing it during that time. The person who started that and the person I am now just honestly aren't on the same wavelength, so it made no sense for me to write something that didn't feel like me.

That being said, I fucking hate beginning stories. The first two or three chapters for me are always hell. Bear with me for now, I swear it gets better. Right now it's really just establishing things and making descriptions, getting to know shit. It's a hassle, but I feel as though it's necessary.  
The current plan is for this story to be somewhere from thirty to fifty chapters, but who knows. The basic outline is written out, but things could change. I might take things out, I might add things. I've only really written the detailed outlines for 5 chapters, so atleast we've got that. That being said, updates will be sporadic. For now, let's say we're aiming for at least a monthly update. I will try my absolute best to stick to it, I swear, but I'm an airhead and an egghead. Alright! As always, please leave comments. Reviews, criticisms, improvements I could make. Please let me know. Or, you can always just say hello. I always accept those too. Hope you enjoyed, and I will see you again in the future.


	2. Chapter 2

Ok, so just to clarify ahead of time; Last chapter I didn't realize I had mistakenly wrote 'Kaylee' when it was from Haylee's perspective. I will try to remember to go back and fix it, although I actually want to go back and reupload the chapter because the formatting came out weird.

I usually try to put a list of songs I listened to up here, but the plot isn't all that deep this chapter so just put on some chill tunes and enjoy my friends.

Xx

 **Haylee Von Engel-Schlimm**

I woke up slowly, dazed as I took in the smell of… strawberry bubblegum and iron? The blankets beneath me were soft and warm, pressingly against the small bit of stomach that was exposed from my shirt rolling up. I realized that I had likely fallen into bed and not actually put any of the blankets on me, because the backside of my body was cold. I must've have been really tired, because most nights I can't sleep without the blankets at least wrapped around my feet.

I groaned at the small headache I had, remembering that I had drank a minimal amount of alcohol last night. I quietly thanked past me. A real hangover would have been an absolute bitch to deal with.

I sleepily began blinking my eyes open, rolling over onto my side. I had fallen asleep on my stomach, one my feet dangling off of the bed. There was a small amount of light coming into the room from outside, although most of it was stopped by the heavy blinds.

Heavy… blinds? But my room has cheap white curtains…?

With a start, I realized I wasn't in my own room. The walls were painted a light grey color, with several posters scattered on them. There were a few older movies on them; _Back to the Future, The Matrix, Thor: Ragnarok..._ There were also posters for bands that I didn't recognize, mostly guys with long hair and tight jeans.

I felt my breath hitch slightly with mild panic. I closed my eyes as I thought back to last night. I had gone to a party with my brother and sister, lost them, got chatted up by some guy and was saved by-

"Serana, _jag är förvånad över att du inte dricka igår kväll_ ," an amused voice spoke outside the room. I sighed a small breath of relief when I finally remembered where I was; I had met Serana last night and she had let me stay over after we ended up here late at night. " _Hon luktar ganska bra. Och jag får inte ens det frestas_."

"I have control over my _törsta_ ," Serana's voice snapped back, sounding annoyed. " _Den tjejen är min vän_. Now leave me alone!"

"Don't be so testy, kid." It took me a moment to recognize the voice as Serana's older brother. "It's commendable. Maybe you're taking a few steps towards being normal."

"I don't care about being _normal_ ," Her voice clearly disgusted over the use of the word. "Just go to the lab, Nate. You're being annoying."

"Well, I hope she enjoys her home cooked breakfast," Nate's voice said, laced with amusement. Serana huffed, and I heard her footsteps coming closer. "Tell her I apologize for last night, again."

"Bugger _off_ , annoying bastard," Serana grumbled, stepping into the room. I watched as she came into view, walking through the doorway in a overly large grey t-shirt and athletic shorts. Her long legs took short, dragging steps as she scratched her forehead. She was a bit disgruntled when she came in, although her face brightened when she saw me looking at her. "Ah. You're awake. G'mornin', sleepyhead."

"Good morning," I said, groggily sitting up. I blinked a couple times, trying to will my sleepiness away. "Was that your brother out there?"

"Indeed it was," She said, rolling her eyes with a chuckle. "I apologize if we woke you up."

"I was already awake when I could hear you," I responded with a small yawn. "I didn't realize you were bilingual."

"Oh, the Swedish?" Serana laughed, shrugging lightly. "Nate and I lived in Sweden, with my grandparents, when we were a bit younger. He wanted to do some medical studying there or something, and I thought it was unfair that he got to go. So I made them let me go too. Ah, speaking of siblings; I plugged in your phone last night. I think you've got a couple texts from your sister."

"You looked at my texts?" I said, raising an eyebrow as she went to her desk, unplugged my phone and handed it to me. She paled for a moment as she did, forgetting to let go when I grabbed it.

"No! I mean, I saw that you had a couple messages from a girl named Kaylee," Serana said, quickly recovering. She released my phone like it was lava when she glanced down and realized she still had a hold on it. "I just assumed it was your sister, because you said you were twins and that seems like a kind of twin name. I figured she might be worried about you, since you said you don't go out often."

"I'm just messing with you," I snickered as I clicked the power button. My phone told me that it was 10:15 am, and that I had six unread messages from Kaylee. I clicked the home button once, before swiping it and letting it look me in the eye. "I've got a lock on it. I know you can't look at my texts."

"That's awful," Serana said, letting out a loud sigh. She gave me a small faux-pout and my heart skipped a beat. It wasn't really fair that someone could manage to be incredibly (for lack of a more eloquent word) smoking hot _and_ cute. "I didn't have you pegged as a jokester."

"Only occasionally," I said, casually reading the texts from my sister.

 **Kaylee**

 _Where did you go? I can't find you NYQHERE_

 **11:32 PM**

 _*anywhere_

 _ **11:32 PM**_

 _I'm sorry for accidentally ditching you, so can you please answer me?_

 **12:00 AM**

 _I found Quinn, but my sister is still MIA._

 _Know where I might be able to find her?_

 **12:48 AM**

 _I am going home soon, and you are starting to really worry me. Please let me know you're okay._

 **1:30 AM**

 _If haven't heard from you by tomorro afternoon, I'm caling the cps_

 **2:30 AM**

"Do you drink coffee?" Serana asked, patiently waiting as I typed out a message to my sister. "I made a bit of food, in the kitchen.

 _I am fine. I ended up making a friend and stayed at her house. I'll tell you about it when I get home._

"It's a trick question, actually," Serana said, with a snigger. She started to walk back out of her room and I rose to follow her. "I know you drink coffee."

"Oh my god," I grumbled under my breath, hanging my head. The smell of bacon and fresh brewed coffee greeted my nose as I stepped up to the counter/island. "I thought we were letting it go."

"I believe I said I would pretend not to know you were staring at me," Serana laughed loudly. She took two plates on the counter next to the stove and placed them in front of me. Warm bacon and a fresh stack of pancakes waited to be eaten as I realized how famished I was. "I can know you drink coffee. Do you want a plate or anything? I usually just eat with my hands so I didn't think to get any out."

"No, I'm fine," I said, trying to hide my reddened face behind a hand. I pretended to be wiping some sleepiness away, masking my embarrassment. She carried a glass pot of coffee and two mugs over towards me, laughing when she saw me. "Thank you."

"My pleasure, love." She said smoothly. She set a mug down in front me, holding the other as she poured herself a cup. There was already a small carton of cream and a little pink jar which read 'sugar' out. When she finished pouring her cup, she poured in a large bit of cream and dumped three spoonfuls of sugar in. She stirred peacefully, a smile on her face. "Do you always get this embarassed? This easily?"

"I do tend to, yes," I said, flushing again as I reached over to grasp the pots handle. "Although the fact that I got caught staring at someone makes it exponentially worse."

"I can hardly blame you," She laughed again. "I'm gorgeous."

"And humble," I grumbled.

"I tend to be more humble regarding things I've actually accomplished," Serana said, taking a sip from her drink. She grabbed a piece of bacon, chewing on it happily before she spoke again. "My looks though, don't belong to me. My 'rents did the work on that. I just get to reap the benefits."

"I almost hope I never have to meet everyone in your family," I said, putting my normal amount of cream and sugar in my coffee. I took a pancake, half-mindedly eating as I spoke. "I think I'd have a heart attack."

"You should hope you never meet my uncle, Eugene and Dean's dad," Serana chuckled. "Awful charmer, that guy is. He can be a bit of a sweet-talker too; wouldn't be too surprised if he'd managed to bed his way half way across the world. He's truly the worst of all of us. The grin, he's got it the best. Or the worst, depending on how you see it."

"Ah," I said, taking a few more small bites of my pancake. I reached for another, surprised when I saw that Serana had already eaten half the stack herself, along with half the bacon. "When did you…?"

"Fast eater, big eater," Serana simply replied, taking a long sip from her warm coffee. "Got to maintain my looks somehow."

"I don't think the amount of food you eat directly relates to your appearance," I said, with a small giggle. She smiled at me, pleasantly.

"Who knows?" She said, with a playful shrug. "Nate knows more about that than me. He's always been the smart one."

My phone let out a small buzz, and I flipped it over to see what it was.

 **Kaylee**

 _WHAT?_

 _ **10:20 AM**_

 _UHMMM, you make friends?_

 _ **10:20 AM**_

 _Oh my god, did you…_

 _ **10:20 AM**_

 _Did you_ **hook up** _with someone last night?!_

 _ **10:21 AM**_

 _Ugh, please come home soon and spill the deets_

 _ **10:21 AM**_

"Sister again?" Serana asked, curiously.

"Yes," I said, with a small sigh. "She doesn't believe that I could make a friend. And then asked if I hooked up with said friend. I feel like that'd be _less_ believable than making a friend, though."

"No hookups last night," Serana said, laughing heartily. "I feel a bit guilty about having to disappoint her, even if I've never met her."

"Don't," I snorted. "She'll still make something up in her head that'll keep her entertained."

"About you and me?" Serana asked, raising an eyebrow.

"About me and 'friend'," I clarified, making air quotes with my fingers.

"Huh." Serana said, with a small frown. For a moment, I started to wonder that she was put off by the idea of… of someone thinking we got _together_. She tilted her head a bit and her eyebrows furrowed. "Does she… think about you like that, often?"

"What?" I said. I blinked twice, unsure if I had properly heard what she just asked.

"Does she think about you hooking up with people a lot?" She said, making a confused face. "I mean, I guess I push Eugene and Dean to sometimes, but I don't really _imagine_ it. Although, I do suppose this explains why that guy last night thought you'd be into a threesome."

"Wha-" I started again, before realization set in. I felt horror wash over me as I shouted; "No! No! God, no! No, she doesn't _imagine_ me hooking up with someone, god. I just meant she makes up little fantasy situations in her head leading up. And it's not really a _me_ thing, as much as she just likes to make up random scenarios in her head… god. No."

"Ah, that does seem like it would make more sense." Serana quietly nodded, seemingly in thought. A few silent moments passed as I continued to sip on my coffee. Suddenly, Serana quickly shook her head and frowned. "Crap. I should probably get you home, right? Not that I'm kicking you out, but it _is_ almost afternoon and you probably want to change or something."

"Oh, yeah, actually," I said, looking down and realizing I was wearing the same outfit I had left my house in last night. "A shower would be nice."

"I'll give you a ride," Serana said, putting her empty mug in the kitchen sink before swiftly walking towards her room.

"You don't have to," I said, quickly, hoping to catch her before she disappeared. "I can walk, I don't live too far from here."

"Nonsense," she said, her voice light and happy. "I'm not going to just going to kick you out and make you walk back. In last night's clothes. I feel as though you aren't partial to the eyes you'd get from your 'Walk of Shame', given how self-conscious you get."

"You're not _wrong_ ," I said, with a sigh. I hadn't even thought about that. Even if it wasn't really a true walk of shame, it was embarrassing to think that that's what it would be seen as. And school hadn't even started yet. And it was still technically a weekday. "I'd feel bad though, making you drive me."

"If it eases your conscious," Serana started, reappearing with a ring of keys in her hands. "I wanted to hang out with you a little more, anyways. I've got nothing to do for the rest of the day, besides possibly making sure my cousins are still breathing."

"Well, if you really don't mind," I said, giving in. I took my last sip of coffee and started towards the kitchen sink.

"Ah, just leave it, I can get it later," Serana quickly said. She smiled brightly at me and started walking towards her front door. "And I _truly_ don't mind, sweetheart. Let's get you home."

* * *

"Quinn! She's home!" Kaylee's voice squealed as soon as I opened my front door. My sister was sitting on the couch, her feet tucked underneath her. Her eyes were practically glowing as she watched me walk into the room. She was wearing one of her favorite pajama outfits; a bright red shirt that was three sizes too large and white boxer shorts.

" _Finally_ ," my brother spoke as he stood in our kitchen, making a pot of coffee. He turned, wet-haired and shirtless, holding a mug up at me with a grin. "Want a cup?"

"I already had some," I said, with a small sigh. I could already feel the int-

"Already _had some_ ," Kaylee's voice soared a pitch higher, her eyes wide. "This girl gave you _coffee_? Did you hook up with her?"

"NO!" I shouted, rolling my eyes. I started moving towards my room, only for my younger brother to swiftly stand in the hallway. His checkered pajama bottoms hung slightly off his hips as he held his steaming cup of coffee, looking exceptionally smug.

"You didn't actually think you could sneak off to go to bed, did you?" Quinn snickered, shaking his head. A few stray wet droplets hit me as I frowned at him. He nodded slightly towards the couch. "Come on, sit down."

"I don't wa-" I started.

"Sit _down_ , Haylee!" Kaylee cut me off promptly. My shoulders sank as soon as I realized there was no way for me to get around this.

" _Fine,_ " I said, turning on my heel to sit down on the end seat of the couch. "What do you guys want me to say?"

"Was she hot? What was she like? How did you end up going to her _house_? And not hooking up?" Kaylee rattled questions off, her eyes almost as wide as her grin. "What was her name? What does she look like?"

"Kaylee," Quinn said, sitting next to me. He raised an eyebrow at our sister. "One at a time. I wanna know too, but she can't answer when you do that."

"Right. Right. My bad." Kaylee said, taking a long, deep close-eyed breath. She opened her eyes after a moment, her words coming much slower. "Who was she? First off."

"Her name was Serana," I said, swallowing dryly. I fiddled my fingers a bit, frowning every time I met Kaylee's eyes. "She's a freshman."

"Did she know someone at the party last night?" Kaylee asked. I could see her mind already working a mile a minute. "Like, from the frat?"

"Uh… I'm not sure," I said with a small shrug. "She had a small group of friends there. Well, two of them were her cousins, but they all seemed close."

"Two cousins…?" Kaylee said, a small light of recognition going off, although not enough for her to fully remember. "What's she like? Wait, wait, no. First, what does she _look like?"_

"She's… uh, a few inches taller than me," I said, scrunching my eyebrows a bit. "Long black hair, blue eyes. Pale skin."

"Ugh, I don't want a generic _description_ ," Kaylee rolled her eyes at me. " _Details_ , Haylee! Was she hot?"

"Ah yes, was she hot?" Quinn asked, his eyes set in a mock serious expression. "Spare us no details."

"..." I sighed heavily, putting my face in my hands before relenting. " _Yes_. Yes, she was hot. She has _super_ long legs, incredibly clear blue eyes, silky straight black hair. And a couple tattoos."

"Blue-eyed, black haired?" Quinn said, contemplatively. "Doesn't seem much your type. I thought you preferred brunettes?"

"Preferences aren't relevant when someone is clearly a _specimen_ of a human being," Kaylee shook her head. I could see her giving my brother a disappointed look through my fingers. "Look at Haylee, right now. She only gets this way when she talks about celebrities."

"Huh," Quinn said, tilting her head down to look at me. "I guess you're right. Now I kind of want to meet _Serana_."

"Ah! No! Bad Quinn!" Kaylee quickly leaned over to slap him in the arm, surprising me enough to make me remove my hands. "Hands off! This is Haylee's!"

"Right, right," Quinn said, with a knowing nod. He turned to me and sweetly said; "My apologies."

"I don't _care_ ," I groaned. "She didn't even seem like she was… you know."

"Into girls?" Kaylee said, raising an eyebrow. "You can say it, Haylee. It's not really taboo."

"I meant into _me_ ," I groaned again, louder this time.

" _Please_ ," Kaylee snorted, rolling her eyes in actual annoyance. "You think this girl took you from a party and let you just sleep over at her house because she's _not into you_?"

"She wants to be friends," I simply responded. "Not that I mind. She's cool. I'm _fine_ with being her friend."

"For the love of-" Kaylee started muttering under her breath, her eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "So me or Quinn could go for her? You'd be fine?"

"If this is the kind of interrogation you're doing from here on out, I'm leaving," I growled, narrowing my eyes. She narrowed her own brown ones back at me, silence taking the room for a long moment.

"So…" Quinn spoke up, clearing his throat conspicuously. "Cousins? Any for me?"

"They're twin-" I started.

"Amazing," Quinn smiled.

"Boys." I finished, raising an eyebrow. His smile faded and he sighed.

"Dammit." Quinn grunted, pursing his lips.

"Oh, I'm interested now," Kaylee said, with a smirk. "What're they like?"

"Uh… I only really met them for a second," I shrugged. "They look the same, but they have different hairstyles. One of them's a real hard partyer, and the other seems like he spends the night spurring his brother on. And all three of them have this weird grin th-"

"Grin! Twins! Cousins!" Kaylee shouted, realization bright in her eyes. She snapped her fingers and pointed at me. "Abadeers! You hung out with Serana Abadeer!"

"Uh… yes?" I said, frowning at her as she beamed at me. "How did you know that?"

"Derrick, my frat buddy, is friends with them," Kaylee said, her eyes as smug as her smile. "He's got two cousins too, and they're all friends. Oh my god, you met _Serana Abadeer_."

"I… _yes_?" I said, still confused.

"People _love_ her," Kaylee said, laughing loudly as she spoke.

"...what?" I blinked at her, confused.

"She was legendary before she got here," Kaylee said, shaking her head. "Since they're all friends with that one guy, Frank? He's the same age as us, so they've been visiting for four years and _whenever_ they do, people apparently love it."

"What do they do that's so exciting?" Quinn asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure," Kaylee responded with a shrug. "Derrick said they just are kind of all over the place, along with his cousin. Apparently an upperclassmen in his frat once got caught by the police with two grams of coke and the twins talked them out of trouble. No one even really knows what they said."

"Huh." Quinn said, with an impressive nod of his head. "Maybe I'll have a class or two with one of them."

"If we're done with the interrogation," I interjected, standing up. "I _desperately_ need a nap. I only get a couple more days of sleeping in the middle of the day."

* * *

"They expect me to drop _two hundred_ dollars on a textbook?" Quinn growled, annoyed as he examined the rather thick book he held in his hands. He turned to look at me, an angry scowl on his face. "Do they realize I have to get books for other classes too? Or think about the fact that I'm a college student with a low budget?"

"Welcome to the real world, Quinn." I said, with a sympathetic shrug. "Maybe not _quite_ the real world, but people here still don't give a shit."

"So they're just going leech off of students?" Quinn snapped. "I mean seriously, it's fucking expensive just to get here, and then what happens if I can't buy the goddamned textbook? You'd think they sucked enough money out of me from the tuition alone. Fuck the real world, man."

"You're preaching to the choir," Kaylee sighed heavily, holding a thinner book in her hands, with a small disc in a plastic wrap. "Why do I need a physical textbook _and_ an e-book? Why can't I pay for _one_ and use the _one_?"

"This is bullshit," Quinn grumbled, taking the textbook and walking to find his next one. He looked at a small piece of paper he had, with a list of the five books he needed. "I bet I won't even use these. But I'm going to be shit out of luck if I need something from _one section of one chapter_ and I don't own it."

"Life sucks," I merely groaned in reply, realizing that I had a couple of books to get myself.

It wasn't as if we _couldn't_ pay for our books. If we were to call our parents and ask for the cash, they would be more than happy to. The issue was that none of us _wanted_ to do that. Something our parents had always encouraged in us was independence, and we'd be _damned_ if we couldn't find a way to pay for our own stupid hundred dollar textbooks.

"This is why the drop out numbers are so high, honestly," Quinn continued to grumble as his eyes scanned the black letters on the spine of books. "I mean, if you can't pay you can't graduate, so why bother? And when high schoolers realize that shit? Why finish high school at all? The only thing a high school diplomas good for is getting into college, and college is only good for getting a job. A job you'll be stuck working for forty or fifty years trying to pay off your fucking student loans."

"Man, that's cynical," Kaylee said, whistling through her teeth. "But true."

"I speak nothing but truth," Quinn said, an undertone of mock dramatics in his voice. "I speak for the people, man."

"Yeah, yeah, _whatever_ ," I said, rolling my eyes with a small smile. The back pocket of my jeans buzzed after I spoke. I vaguely heard my siblings exchange a few more words as I took my phone out and looked at the screen.

 _ **Unknown Number**_

 _Say thank you to your sister._

 ** _3:20 PM_**

"...what?" I mumbled under my breath, confused.

"What's up?" Kaylee asked, leaning over to look around my brother at me.

"I just got this weird text," I said just as my phone buzzed again.

 _Not with a threesome, though_.

 ** _3:20 PM_**

"..." I blinked, frowning. "...what."

 _Ah. Shit._

 _This is Serana. Apologies, probably should have started with that._

 ** _3:21 PM_**

"What's it say?" Kaylee questioned, watching my face curiously.

"It's Serana," I said, raising an eyebrow at my sister. "She says to thank you."

"Ah! She texted you!" Kaylee said, a bright smile spreading across her face. "I texted Derrick and got her number, and then I texted your number to her. Surprised it took her that long, though."

"When did you do that?" I said, pursing my lips.

"Yesterday night," Kaylee said with a smug look. Quinn looked in between the two of us, gauging both of our faces. His eyes stayed on my face for a second, before he started to grin as well.

" _Serana_ ," He said with recognition.

"I hate you both." I rolled my eyes as my phone buzzed again.

 _You and your siblings are cordially invited to spend a magical evening at mi casa._

 ** _3:21 PM_**

 _Truth be told, my gang's just hanging out at my place tonight._

 _Can't go out and party every night, or we'd never be able to accomplish anything._

 _Let me know?_

 ** _3:22 PM_**

"What'd she say?" Kaylee said, bouncing with excitement.

"What'd she say?" Quinn repeated, almost equally as excited. I sighed at the two.

"She said that we're 'invited to spend a magical even-" I started.

"What?" Kaylee cut me off, frowning.

"I think she's inviting us to hang out at her house." I sighed. I gave a loud grunt of disapproval when Kaylee promptly leaned and snatched my phone from my hands.

"We're going." Kaylee simply said, swiping to unlock my phone. She put in my passcode with ease and typed out a short message.

"That's nice of her to invite us, too." Quinn noted.

"...it is," I simply replied, continuing to look for my next textbook.

* * *

 **Serana Abadeer**

"Haylee said she and her siblings will come over," I said, placing my phone back on the coffee table. I sat up and straightened my back, picking up my controller. "Let me back in the game."

"She's the cute one from Derrick's frat house?" Dean asked, pausing briefly to let me log myself back in. We were currently sitting in our living room, playing a heated game of Super Smash. "With the freckles."

"Yep," I responded, instantly jumping back into the game. I knocked Eugene off the screen.

"Bloody-!" Eugene began to curse under his breath.

"She's an off-limits, correct?" Dean questioned again, casually. He blocked an attack of mine, retaliating with a powerful combo.

"You don't even like drinking from people," I growled, rolling my eyes. "But yes. She is off-limits."

"You've never been one to cultivate a snack, Serana," Eugene noted, dodging one of Dean's lethal attacks. "Is she that fine a wine? She was pretty, though."

"She's not food," I snapped, so harshly that both of my cousins ceased game movement for a moment. I used it, sending them both flying off the screen. "She's my friend. I'm not going to drink from her."

"Huh," Eugene said, with a small huff of interest. "I'll take your word, I guess. It's obviously not a conquest; you never bring those home."

"Besides," I said, with gruff annoyance. "If I was going to snack on her, why would I let her siblings come?"

"Fair point," Dean said, with a chuckle. " _Unless_ you intended on-"

"I _don't_ ," I barked back. Another hard combo, and I had won the game. I placed the controller back on the coffee table, albeit a bit roughly due to frustration. My ears perked for a moment, listening as I heard footsteps.

"Speaking of," Dean said, with a boyish smile. He stuck a thumb towards the doorway. "I think lunch is here."

Nathan walked into the room, sluggishly dragging his feet. He held a large red and white cooler in one arm. His eyes sported their usual deep, dark bags. You'd almost think that someone had sucked the soul out of him, the way he walked with his shoulders sagged into the living room. He let go of the cooler and left it in the middle of the dining room.

"Anything tasty in there, Natey boy?" Dean said, enthusiasm evident in his eyes as he quickly jumped over the back of the couch. I leaned back, watching as Dean licked his lips. "Maybe a nice juicy O negative?"

"Contain yourself," Nathan said, sighing. He rubbed his eyes with his forefinger and thumb. His exhaustion was evident. "You're free to have whatever you want, just remember to put them in the basement after."

"Late night?" I asked, watching as he basically dragged himself to the fridge. He opened the door and quickly grabbed one of his favorite iced tea/lemonade drinks. He twisted the cap and took a long drink.

"No later than normal," he said, his voice void of life. "It does get taxing, though. Sleeping in the lab absolutely wrecks my back, so I came home to relax."

"Ah," I said, furrowing my eyebrows with thought for a second.

"What?" Nathan asked, noticing my small silence.

"I was planning on having the gang over, later today," I explained. He nodded, taking another swig of his drink. "But I can cancel, if you need rest. Or we can just go somewhere else."

"Gang _plus_ new friends," Eugene added, still sitting in his spot.

"Fun friends," Dean said, a blood bag in his hand and a small straw in his mouth. He sipped, his eyes rolling back in ecstasy. "That's definitely a virgin. I'm guessing a high schooler."

"New friends…?" Nate asked, confused. He frowned, thinking. "You're not going to turn my home into a feast hall, are you? Or an orgy."

" _No_ ," I sighed heavily, frustrated. "Does _anyone_ think I can just have normal friends?"

"You just don't have a track record with _normal friends_ ," Nate said, with a shrug. "Not even a bad one. Which is the _only_ thing you don't have a bad track record with."

"Right," I huffed, annoyed. I folded my arms and scowled at my older brother. "And here I was, trying to be kind and considerate. Maybe I _will_ have a feast hall here, _and_ an orgy. At the same time."

"Okay, okay," Nate said, shaking his head a bit, with a tired smile. "What time were they all planning on coming?"

"Around nine or ten-ish?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"That's fine." Nate said, throwing away the plastic container he had finished drinking out of. He walked towards his room, his legs full of lead. "I'll be out of here in… five or six hours, depending on if I can wake myself back up."

"Are you sure you shouldn't just-" I started.

"I'll be fine, don't worry," Nathan said, with one of his casual polite smiles. "Besides, I wouldn't miss an opportunity to let you branch out a bit."

"That's… somewhat oddly nice of you," I responded, with a small frown. Nathan stopped in his doorway, a hand on his door frame, and threw a natural, genuine grin at me.

"Because she seems nice," He simply said, before stepping in his room and softly closing the door.

"Did he meet…?" Eugene asked, pointing a confused finger at Nathan's door.

"...shit," I cursed under my breath, although I could still hear my brother chuckle in his room. "Yes. He did."

* * *

 **Haylee Von Engel-Schlimm**

Admittedly, my nerves were a bit wired as I stood with my siblings on Serana's front porch. I could hear loud music and shouting coming from inside.

"Place is huge," Quinn noted, with an approving nod. He swept some of his neat hair back, with a small whistle. One hand was in the pocket of his light grey chinos as he looked the house up and down. He was wearing a fairly light long-sleeved Adidas shirt and a white t-shirt underneath. He had chosen to wear his favorite pair of red, white and gold Nike SB's.

"They must be loaded," Kaylee responded, snickering. Always looking to impress, she had put on one of her tight black dresses, with one long sleeve and a bare shoulder. She had on a simple pair of black high heels, that made her at least 5 inches taller than me. "You should marry into money, Haylee."

"Shut _up_ ," I groaned, hesitantly grasping the door handle. I was wearing something simple; a large grey t-shirt with something japanese written on the front, along with some black joggers and red converse. Serana had texted me earlier, saying that she'd leave the door unlocked for us to walk in. ' _I probably won't be able to hear if you knock_.

"Are…are we going in?" Quinn questioned, confused. I let out a long hot sigh under my breath and I heard my brother grunt.

"Give her a _second_ , Quinn," Haylee hissed in a loud whisper. "Jesus Christmas, you're going to rush her and then she'll get too nervous and go home or never want to go out again."

"Sorry, sorry," Quinn apologized quietly. "I didn't mean to."

"Let's just go in," I groaned, taking a deep breath before twisting the door open and stepping in.

The sound of a heavy bass and latin-themed music swam into the foyer. I could hear yelling and laughing as I lead my siblings inside.

"5!... 6!... 7!..." the group chanted as we walked in. Passing the threshold, we were greeted with the sight of Dean kneeling on the ground with his face up and mouth open. Eugene stood over him with a large neon can of energy drink and a 40z of Smirnoff, pouring both liquids into his brothers mouth with a wild grin. "8!... 9!..."

There was a long pause that the group used to laughed before continuing the count. Dean loudly smacked at the ground with his hand, his face turning red.

"10!" Eugene finally cheered loudly, tilting the vodka bottle so that it no longer poured and throwing the can of energy drink across the room. His brother rose from the ground with a triumphant smile, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Eugene grabbed Dean in a large hug, lifting him from the ground. "Ye-ah! That's my fucking brother!"

"Put me down!" Dean laughed, whacking his brother in the back with a flat palm. "Put me _down_ , you bleeding bastard!"

"Fuck _me_ ," Kaylee whispered to me. I looked at her, confused, raising an eyebrow. She raised an approving one back at me and nodded towards the room. " _Everyone_ in this room is hot."

"Oh my god," I let out a low breath, shaking my head with a small laugh. "Seriously?"

"I mean, I'm not trying to hook up with one," Kaylee shrugged. "Just appreciative."

"Haylee?!" An excited voice shouted across the room. All at once, eyes had turned to the three of us standing in the entrance of the living room. I could see Serana behind her cousins start coming towards us, only to be cut off by Dean.

"Couldn't get enough of us?" He spoke smoothly, quickly standing in front of the three of us. "And this is… the sister? And the brother?"

"I'm Kaylee," Kaylee offered, before leaning back and pointing to our brother. "This is Quinn."

"A pleasure," Dean said, politely, holding a hand out. Kaylee blinked before she placed her own in his. He gave her a firm shake before releasing my sister and holding his hand out towards Quinn.

"Uh, same," Quinn responded, somewhat uneasily. I could see by the look in his eyes that something along the lines of 'what the hell, why are we shaking hands? Are we old men?' was going through his head. He shook Dean's hand and the long-haired twin turned back into the room.

"Hey, guys," Serana said, throwing a dirty look at her cousin as she approached us. He simply chuckled before walking up to Franklin, laughing and saying something along the lines of 'do you dare me to…?'

"Hi," I responded, with a smile. She grinned back at me, jutting her thumb towards the living room.

"Come on in," Serana said, addressing my siblings as well. "Mi casa es tu casa. There's, uhm, beer in the fridge in the kitchen. There's hard liquor in the bar, over yonder. There's also water and lemonade, in the fridge as well. Don't drink the iced tea, though. That's my brothers. Oh! Wait! Let me introduce everyone!"

Serana walked into the middle of the living room. The middle couch that had previously sat right in front of the TV was pushed off to the side slightly, closer to the kitchen. There were solo cups set up on the dining room table, as well as an assortment of empty beer bottles on the coffee table.

Serana reached into her back pocket and pressed something on her phone, prompting the music to shut off. She returned it to it's spot and clapped twice.

"This evening, lady and gentleman," Serana said, in a loud dramatic voice. She made a large sweeping motion with her hands, directed towards us as she said; "We're adding new friends to the mix!"

"I love new friends," Faith giggled, sitting on the loveseat with her feet propped up on a large boy's lap. He gave her a small glare, trying to push her feet off. She grinned at him, her legs unmoving and he huffed.

"Kaylee, you know Derrick," Serana said, nodding towards the boy.

"Hey there, Kay," the blonde-haired boy said, with a friendly smile and a wave. He looked between Quinn and I and offered another smile. He was an attractive boy, with short dirty blonde hair and a small amount of stubble. He was muscular, thick armed with a solid torso. It was difficult to tell how tall he was when he was sitting, but he didn't look much taller than Serana. "I'm Derrick, obviously. Friends with your sister."

"Derrick is a very nice guy," Serana added. "Probably the nicest of the _other_ trio of cousins, followed shortly by-" Serana looked around the room before finding her bearded friend sitting in the plush chair across from his cousins. "Frank the tank!"

"Don't call me that," Frank said gruffly, shaking his head with a small growl. He turned towards us and nodded politely. "Glad to see she didn't scare you too much. Try not to get too intimidated by how intense these guys get; they're a bunch of idiots."

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Franky," Faith said, rolling her head across the arm of the loveseat. She threw Frank pouted lips. "You're so mean to us, sometimes."

"Don't be an idiot," Frank said, with a shrug.

"Ass," Faith merely responded, before turning to look at us. There was a bit of recognition in the smile she gave me. She gave my siblings once-overs, lingering slightly on Quinn. "I'm Faith. The girl cousin of my trio. Frank and Derrick are my boy protectors."

"You don't need 'boy protectors'," Derrick rolled his eyes with a snort. "If anything, we need to protect boys from _you_."

"I can't imagine why you'd protect anyone from me," Faith giggled lightly, picking a bottle of beer from the coffee table and taking a long swig. "I can guarantee you, _anyone_ is willing."

"Anyone?" Dean asked, lifting an eyebrow from his place next to Frank. He leaned his waist against his chair, a small grin on his face. Faith shot him a teasingly dirty look.

"I'll get you, someday, James," Faith shook a finger at him, narrowing her eyes. "I'll find the chink in your armor."

"That's my cousin," Serana spoke to my siblings. "Although, you met him a moment ago. His name is James Dean, but we just call him Dean."

"The only person who calls me James, is my father," Dean said, rolling his eyes pointedly at his female friend. "Again, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Eugene," his brother said, with a grin. "Twin brothers, obviously. Even if you can't see past that rat tail on his face."

"We can't go _five_ minutes without insulting my moustache?" Dean grumbled, crossing his arms. He turned to look at my siblings, pouting slightly. "Is it _that_ bad?"

"I wouldn't say that it's bad," Kaylee offered, sympathetically. She bit back a laugh as she looked at him. "It's not really… _my_ taste, though."

"You know what _is_ my taste?" Faith quickly spoke, jumping up with a happy clap. "Beer pong."

"A woman after my own heart," Quinn said, with a coy smile.

"I'm a woman after many things," Faith laughed, walking towards the dining room table. She grabbed Dean by the zipper of his jacket and dragged him to the table. She looked back over at my brother from over her shoulder, her hair only slightly hiding the approving look she gave my brother. "Not often hearts, though."

"Why did you drag me over here before I grabbed the beer?" Dean gave his friend a confused frown and she laughed, holding up a cardboard six pack. He blinked. "Oh. I didn't realize you grabbed it."

"Set it up?" Faith asked with a sweet smile. Dean rolled his eyes and chuckled, taking the beer from her and calling his brother to help. Faith turned back to my siblings and I, cheerfully. "You guys are in right? Serana doesn't usually play, she's not a drinker, so we can actually have even teams this time!"

"I'm in," Kaylee quickly replied. "I've honestly _never_ turned down a game of beer pong."

"Ditto," Quinn said, his eyes sparkling as he gave Faith yet _another_ once over. She seemed to notice, simply raising an eyebrow and smirked at him.

"So you're in too, right?" Faith asked, looking back at me. Her eyes were so expectant that I felt like I refused I'd be crushing all her hopes and dreams.

"Faith," Serana half-growled. Faith frowned slightly at her. "Don't force her if she doesn't want to."

"I'm not forcing her," Faith responded back.

"Well, _I_ am." Kaylee snorted, grabbing me by the inner elbow. She pulled me (gently, which I appreciated) over to the table that the other twins had finished setting up. She looked at the two boys with a quirked eyebrow. " _Twenty_ cups?"

"It's not that much," Dean chuckled lowly, with a small shrug. "If you guys feel like it's too much, one of us will take your cup for you."

"Oh, you snagged my chance," Faith quickly said, snapping her fingers. "I was going to offer."

"Too bad, so sad, mate," Dean stuck his tongue out at her. Eugene's hand quickly shot out and grabbed it, earning a confused and alarmed look from his brother. Eugene gave a small, hard tug and Dean groaned loudly. "Ow! What the bloody hell? That fucking hurts, bastard."

"Teams?" Eugene said, ignoring his brother and smiling at the rest of us. He held a small jar in his hands, with little wooden sticks.

"That's how they decide teams," Serana explained, still standing by my side. "Some of them have red, some have blue. There's usually green in there too, when we play other games."

"I already took all the green ones out, counted to make sure things were even," Eugene said, proudly. He held the jar out towards me with a grin. "You pick first, guest of honor."

"Why is she the guest of honor?" Kaylee asked, with a clearly fake angry frown.

"Because Serana invited her _and_ _her_ siblings," Eugene shrugged at her, offering no apology. "Serana rarely makes friends, so she's a guest of honor."

"Eugene!" Serana snapped. Eugene didn't flinch, just shrugging again and gesturing with his head that I should take a stick.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm flattered," I laughed, reaching to take a stick. I looked at the bottom end, seeing it had red marker on it. "I'm red."

"Team red!" Eugene shouted, excited. He turned to Kaylee, smiling. "Your turn."

Systematically, he walked up to everyone and had them draw a stick. Frank and Derrick had gotten up at some point, and were standing near the table as well. Frank was sipping on a bottle of Miller Lite while he drew his blue stick. Derrick laughed and pushed Frank in the shoulder when he got his, showing his cousin that they were on the same team.

Kaylee drew a blue stick as well, pouting at me when she did but high-fiving Derrick. Quinn drew a red stick, just before Faith drew hers. Quinn held his stick out towards hers for them to cheers, before the two held their joined sticks towards me. I tapped them as well just as Eugene came in to roughly crash his against ours. Dean, being last, knew he was on the other team. He yelled excitedly, revving his teammates up.

After a quick game of rock-paper-scissors between Faith and Dean, it was decided that the other team would go first. Serana produced white ping-pong balls from somewhere in the bar, and the game started.

"Gentlemen," Dean said, using his long arms to back Frank and Derrick up. He gave Kaylee a polite nod and said; "Ladies first, I believe."

"Oh, twin against twin!" Faith giggled, giving me a small pat on the back. I turned back, probably giving her a frightened look because she smiled and pointed to Eugene. "If you really don't want, he'll drink it."

"I don't appreciate you offering me up like that, but yes, I will," Eugene responded with a nod.

"Your brother offered you up first," Faith just rolled her eyes.

"Shut _up_ , you two!" Dean shouted across the table. He made a large gesture with his hands, framing the top and bottom of Kaylee's torso with his hands. "Let Kaylee go!"

"Don't tell me to shu-" Eugene started.

"Just _play_ ," Serana spoke over the two of them, making a show of turning to music back on. It was loud, although not too loud that I felt like I couldn't think.

Kaylee took her ball in her hand, sticking her tongue out slightly as she angled her elbow above the table. She narrowed one eye with her cheek before flicking her wrist and letting the ball sail. With a ceremonious 'PLUNK' the ball landed in a cup square in the middle of our teams rows.

"Drink up!" Kaylee cheered, motioning with her hand for me to pick the cup up. I shot her a quick glare, which just made her laugh as she turned to give her teammates high fives.

"Do you want m-" Eugene started. Throwing caution out of the window, I quickly picked up the cup and withdrew the ball. I threw the drink back quickly, swallowing the liquid so fast I almost choked. I felt myself blanching when my taste buds kicked in, letting out a loud half-choked breath. Eugene gave an impressed snort. "Never mind."

"Just so everyone knows," Serana said, throwing me a concerned but impressed look. "There's water. Everyone should always be aware; _there is water_."

"C'mon Haylee," Faith encouraged as I picked the white ball back up. She pat me on the back again, giving me a thumbs up. "You got this."

I held the ball up, letting out a small breath. Physical activities had never been my forte, especially not a game that involves trying to throw a small ball into a small cup. I gave a small test swing before letting the ball go. It soared towards the first cup in the row, before bouncing off the white rim and off the table.

"Oh! Too bad, so sad!" Kaylee said, making a fake cry face at me. I pursed my lips at her and she laughed. Dean howled with laughter as he pat my sister on her shoulder.

"Your sister's kind of an ass," Serana hummed lowly to me, still standing close. She chuckled. "It's actually kind of awesome."

"She's trying to get me to start being competitive." I responded, watching as Derrick shot the ball and missed by at least four inches. Faith laughed loudly and called him some rude name, before picking her ball up and throwing it without thinking. It fell into a cup, and Derrick groaned.

"Competitive Haylee?" Serana snickered back to me. I raised an eyebrow at her as she laughed, and she shrugged unapologetically. "I wouldn't want to miss that."

"Yeah, well, it's just a lot of yelling and swearing," I chuckled, her good mood somewhat infectious.

"Sounds fun, not too unlike my average day." Serana retorted with another low snicker. Dean made a big show of taking the ball from Derrick's hand, after the blonde-haired boy had finished drinking his cup. He made his teammates cheer for him as he cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. The ball rolled off his long fingers with grace, nailing one of the back cups.

Quinn took the ball out of the cup and shook it off. He took the cup in his hand and quickly drank it before placing the cup under the table and getting ready for his shot. Kaylee tried to distract him, yelling and waving at the other side of the table as he threw it. She gave a defeated groan when it landed in beer. Dean took his drink and handed his ball to Frank. Eugene groaned and Serana laughed.

"Frank's _super_ weirdly good at this," Serana said, bending down slightly as she talked to me. "Just watch, I bet he gets two cups."

Frank let the ball go easily, his face blank and his opposite hand holding a beer. It fell into a cup in the front, the ball making a distinct sound against the plastic as it popped back out and fell into a cup just behind it.

"Come _on_ ," Eugene grumbled, taking both cups in his hands. Frank took a sip from his beer, raising both eyebrows at Eugene. Eugene growled out; "You're an _ass_."

"Don't be a sore loser," Frank simply responded, a small triumphant smile on his face. "You're up."

The game continued on for several more minutes. Eugene missed more than half of his shots, likely from the fact that he had to drink _every_ one of his turns. I had forgotten that my sister was also good at the game, considering I didn't often go out to party with her.

By the end, the other team managed to win with four cups still on their side of the table. Eugene drunkenly slurred insults out at Franklin, who simply laughed in return while sipping a bottle of beer. He stumbled a bit as he walked away from his table, caught by Dean who mocked him for having to drink eight cups when he had only managed to get the ball in twice.

"I feel like…" Faith spoke up, with a wide grin on her face. "We should do shots?"

" _Yes_!" Kaylee quickly responded, her eyes as wide as her sloppy smile. She ran around to join Faith as she walked back to the coffee table. "Oh my god, yes!"

"You know," I spoke to Serana lowly, who had stood nearby the entire game. "I feel like everyone's drinking _just_ as much as a normal party."

"That's the way things go around here," she said with a shrug. She looked down at me, sideways from her eye, smirking. Faith and Kaylee were a fit of giggles behind us. "You're a little sloshed yourself, aren't you sweetheart?"

"I've got a low tolerance," I shrugged back at her, blinking a few times to clear up a small haze. "I don't drink much, so when I do… it doesn't take much."

"Would you like some water?" She offered, pointing one of her long fingers at the kitchen. "Or a powerade? We have some of those, too."

"A cold glass of water would be excellent," I responded.

* * *

It didn't take a super long time for things to calm down. Eugene passed out an hour later, after antagonizing his brother and demanding Dean drink more. At some point, Derrick had gotten silently wasted and gone to the bathroom to throw up. No one had even realized he was missing until Frank walked out of the bathroom and shouted that he was going to carry his cousin home.

Watching the boy get carried away had been somewhat comical, his shirt discarded due to being thrown up on. His mouth hung open when Frank slung him over his shoulder, his arms dangling as his older cousin casually strolled away. Kaylee fell asleep half an hour later, leaning against Eugene's shoulder on their loveseat.

At some point, Dean and Serana realized that Faith and Quinn had also disappeared. Dean snickered as he told me that Quinn had likely been caught in her claws. He reassured me that my brother wouldn't get hurt, her claws dug in but they never drew blood. I pursed my lips and Serana apologized.

"Honestly, I'm just surprised it took him that long," I sighed, with a low chuckle. I knew my brother. Even if I loved him dearly, I knew he was a bit of a man-whore. I didn't hold it against him, what he did was his business. "He had his eyes on her the second we walked in here."

"I'll have to thank him," Dean laughed, his arms spread along the back of the black couch. Serana was sitting in one of the dining room chairs, pushed closer to the middle of the living room. I has placed myself in their plush chair that was currently next to their couch. Dean rolled his eyes teasingly. "Maybe she'll get off my back for once. Bloody girl's convinced she's going to get me to sleep with her. We grew up together. That'd be like me screwing Serana."

"Eugh." Serana made a loud gagging noise, pointing a finger at the back of her mouth. "Gross. Don't ever say something like that again."

"It was an analogy," Dean shrugged, his head lulling around to look at his cousin. His eyes gave her a quick once-over and he shook his head. "Definitely not my type."

"Again. Gross." Serana's lips twisted in a disgusted frown. "You're a weirdo."

"Meh," Dean shrugged and turned back to look over at me. "Admittedly, I am a weird man. I apologize for my strangeness."

"Honestly, I don't mind," I laughed. "It's a nice change of pace than just talking to my siblings."

"Well, I'll throw that right back at you, darling," Dean said with an charmingly easy smile. He waved a lazy finger around in a circle. "The usual crowd can get a bit boring. New friends are always welcome. When new friends come with more friends, it's always better."

"You make it seem like her only redeeming attribute is bringing her siblings," Serana responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, apologies," Dean addressed me. "Not what I meant. You're a package all on your own, a nice one. Oh, hell. That made me sound like a pervert."

"It's fine, I understand what you're saying," I laughed again. "I wouldn't blame you for finding my siblings more interesting than me, though."

"More interesting?" Dean said, curiously. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, in thought. "No, not more interesting. Louder? Definitely. Make more of a first impression? Maybe. Not more interesting, though. People are different; that's what makes them interesting."

"Hmm…" I hummed in response. My nose wrinkled when I realized the room smelled intensely of booze and Serana laughed. I turned back, my face burning when I realized she has seen me make a face.

"Don't worry, love," She chuckled. "I get it. Houses never smell great when there's beer and crap all over the bleeding floor."

"Ah," Dean made a small noise indicating he had a thought. He turned to me with a grin. "Do you smoke, mate?"

"Smoke…?" I frowned back at him. His smile, however, didn't falter. "No, cigarettes gross me out."

"Not cigarette's," Dean laughed as he smacked his seat and pushed himself to a stand. He made a small gesture with his hands, pinching his thumb and index finger together in front of his mouth. "Marijuana. Although, your answer tells me you haven't."

"How does my answer…?" I started.

"A lot of times people that smoke cannabis will answer with 'smoke what' to being asked if they smoked." Serana explained, lightly cracking her knuckles. "If a person answers with something related to a fag, we usually assume they don't smoke and haven't before."

"Oh." I simply said, unsure of how else to respond.

"Would you like to try?" Dean asked, standing in front of me with a smile.

"Dean, don't-" Serana started, rubbing her eyes with her fingers.

"I'm not going to _force_ her," Dean rolled his eyes over his shoulder back at his cousin. "I'm just asking."

"Don't feel pressured," Serana said, to me.

"Of course, no pressure," Dean said as he grinned down at me. "That being said, you can feel rest assured you won't end up getting arrested somehow or anything."

"How would you know if-" I started to question.

"Connections." Dean merely responded. He stood with his hands laced behind his back as he waited for me to answer. I briefly remembered Kaylee's story about the brother's talking that coke boy out of trouble.

"Well, I mean, I'm in," I said with a shrug. Serana's head whipped to look at me, a look of shock on her face. I just smiled back at her, with a light laugh. "I've never been opposed to it, I've just never had a chance to. As long as you don't mind sharing with me."

"Oh, pish," Dean laughed loudly, flicking a wrist at me dismissively. "We can share."

"Are you going to the shed?" Serana asked.

"Yeah, that's where most of the good stuff's kept." Dean replied, nodding his head at me to gesture that I should follow him as he walked towards the back door.

"I'm coming," Serana responded, following the two of us.

"I assumed so," Dean responded, his shoulders shrugging slightly. As I stood behind him, I realized that the boy was much taller than me. I had realized it, but I'd never stood this close to him before. The shoulders, hidden by a plain grey t-shirt, seemed large and somewhat intimidating in front of me. He turned back, however, his long hair falling over his eyes a bit as he grinned down. "Worry not, because you are in very good hands. Your girl over there is an expert."

"Don't call me an expert," Serana growled back. I hadn't realized how close behind me she was, as we walked down their back steps. I held back my startled jump, leaning my head back to see her head no more than three or four inches behind me. She raised an eyebrow at me and I grinned back at her.

"An expert?" I questioned. She groaned, loudly.

"I was a rebellious teenager," She rumbled back. Her blue eyes shone in the dark of the night, a hint of amusement when she looked back at me. We walked past their pool to a well put together wooden shed.

The entrance was just made of colorful wooden beads. There were a few spots where windows should have been, but housed only air. Inside, there was a small circle of red and pink bean bag chairs, as well as a white hammock in the further left corner. There were a few shelves attached to the wall, holding several pieces of beautiful glass work.

"Welcome, welcome," Dean said, happily striding over to a black chest underneath the shelves. He waved a hand towards the middle of the room while he clicked the chest open. "Take a seat anywhere."

"That one's the most comfortable," Serana offered, pointing to a red and black checkered bean chair. "It's usually mine, but I'll share today."

"Wow, so kind," I teased, sitting down. She laughed, sitting across from me.

"I try to be a good host."

"Serana, you want the Tut or starburst?" Dean called over his shoulder, rummaging through what sounded like plastic.

"Don't you think that's a little much?"

"Maybe, but the weakest we've got is girl scouts."

"Oh… you have whatever you want." Serana responded. "We'll have GS."

"Over and out," Dean cheerfully responded, grabbing something from the chest and shutting it. He walked towards us, two large seran wrapped green brick shaped things in his hands. He grabbed two pieces of glass from the shelf. A two lighters hung to his pinky as he sat down in the seat next to Serana. "Here you are."

"Take it nice and easy to start," Serana said, looking me in the eye as she unwrapped her package. Dean worked quickly, unwrapping his and grabbing a large pinchful. He took one of the glass pieces, shaped like a rounded pipe, and placed the green plant in the small bowl at the end.

"Ok," I said, watching as Serana went through a similar process. A strong woody smell flooded my nostrils as I watched a Dean place his mouth and light the plant.

"Do _not_ take as long of a puff as Dean does," Serana quickly warned, watching as my eyes widened with every pacing second that Dean breathed in. "Two or three seconds _max_ , sweetheart."

"Ok. Ok." I said, nodding as Dean finally released. Light smoke drifted from his mouth and nose, floating up and out the window. Serana flicked her own lighter, taking a small breath from our shared glass piece.

"Alright, should still be lit a bit," She said, releasing a small bit of smoke. She handed me the glass piece quickly, pointing to a small hole on the side. "Put your finger on that, and breathe in. Use your diaphragm, don't just breathe with your throat or it wont work."

* * *

"No, trust me, we hear it fairly often," Dean giggled out, the whites of his eyes severely bloodshot. "I mean, look at us. We are works of art."

"Honestly, you are," I said, whistling at the two of them. Serana and Dean laughed, Serana leaning back in her chair. "Your whole family. Well, at least the four of you I've met. I didn't realize… people could just… _look_ like that."

"We can't take credit for it," Serana chortled with a small cough. "We get it from our parents. Dean tries his best to ruin it though."

"Ruin it?" Dean asked, throwing his cousin a confused look. "How am I trying to ruin it?"

"Your bloody moustache," Serana laughed loudly, pointing to his face. "I mean, it's disgusting. It makes you look like an ugly bastard."

"It does _not_ ," Dean pouted. "It makes me look boho or whatever."

"It makes you look like a pedophile, cous," Serana responded, howling with laughter. "Hide your kids, mate."

"Fuck _off_ , bastard," Dean shot back, glaring at her. "I'm going to kick you out."

"You're not going to kick me out," Serana frowned back at him.

"I'm going to kick you out." Dean said firmly.

"Uhm…" I interjected. "Kick her out?"

"This is _my_ shed," Dean said, puffing her chest out slightly. "As such, I have rights to kick him out."

"Fucking hell you do," Serana snapped back.

"Shall I give your mum a call?" Dean retorted, batting his eyelashes innocently at her. "Tell her what you've been up to?"

"Fucking-" Serana cursed under her breath, sinking further into her chair.

"Her parents wouldn't approve of knowing she was doing this sort of shit," Dean laughed as he spoke to me. "See, our family is bloody rich and powerful, but parents have a moral code. Long story, but our parents are sets of twins. Her mum's a bit whipped, by my parents split when I was a tyke. Pop doesn't care that much about what we do, as long as we're careful, so he helps me stay supplied. Strict 'no selling' rule, though. Not that I'd need it; still bloody rich."

"I don't even live at home," Serana grumbled to herself, her arms folded. "Mum can't tell me what to do. I'm a fucking a-dult."

"You guys get more and more weirdly awesome yet intimidating the more I know you," I mumbled to myself, my head feeling pleasantly light. The world seemed to be floating, like everything had turned into a cloud.

"The rich and powerful part?" Dean laughed loudly, smacking his chest as he did. "It's blood money, mate."

"Shut up, Dean," Serana quickly shot, her eyes more alert than before. Dean just hollered with laughter again.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Dean said, shaking his hands. "It's old money, though, so we don't do much. We were pretty much raised like normal people. Or as close to normal people as I think they could imagine."

"So you're trust fund kids?" I asked.

"Sounds like a bit of an insult, but I supposed it's an accurate title," Serana said with a casual shrug. "Someday we'll have to pay our dues and put some work in. But someday isn't today. Or tomorrow. Or the day after, or the day after that. So, I don't really think about it too much."

"Although, if you ask Serana to buy you a nice car or something," Dean chuckled. "I bet she'd be willing to ask her mum for a small bit of cash."

"Shut _up_ , Dean," Serana rolled her eyes.

"Aw, come on," Dean laughed hysterically. "You _never_ make new friends. If I hadn't seen her for myself that one time, I would have thought you were making her up."

"I make friends," Serana grumbled, twirling a bottle of water in her hands. I was entranced for a second, watching the way it danced circles around her fingers.

"How do you do that?" I said, my mouth hanging open in awe.

"What?" Serana asked, frowning at me. She slowly followed my line of sight to the bottle she had apparently been twirling around unconsciously. "Oh. Dexterity, you know?"

"Dexterity…" I repeated in a low mumble, watching her fingers. After a moment, I felt my face heat up and quickly looked away when I realized they were both watching me. "Right. Dexterity."

"Oh man," Dean chuckled. "Keep this friend. If you don't, _I_ will."

"Shut _up,_ DEAN."

* * *

Man oh man. I'll admit, this chapter is a little bland, plot wise. I promise you, it does get better. I've got some great and exciting things in store for you, my friends. The plot _will_ thicken.

I would also like to put it out there that any like other languages that show up in my story just are google translated, so if they're wrong and you speak that language I am very sorry.

As always, I like to put my little responses to comments at the bottom, so here you are;

MacCor3:

Honestly bro, I'm right there with you. I almost just flat gave up trying to write it; re-doing everything? Ugh. But it feels like it'll be worth it. The storyline is similar, but obviously not exactly the same. The characters are similar, but with (what I think) variations in them that will make the story more interesting. The writing styles a bit different too, which I just like better as this kind of POV. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!


	3. Christmas Special Short

"Hey, Mummy!"

I raised an eyebrow, my eyes sliding from the book I was reading to the expectant look on my daughters face. She was sitting on the ground with my wife, reading a short picture book together.

"Hmm?" I dog eared my page and closed my book.

"How come we celebe-nate christmas?" Serana asked, curiously tilting her head. Bonnibel giggled beside her, lightly brushing some of our daughters hair with her fingers.

"The word is _cel-e-brate_ ," I said slowly. I frowned down at her. "What do you mean, _why_?"

"Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, isn't it?" Serana questioned, her little eyebrows scrunching as she thought. "But we don't care about his birthday. So why do we cel...cel… celeberate Christmas?"

" _Cel. E. Brate_." I said more slowly. "And we aren't celebrating it as a holy day. We celebrate it as a holiday."

"...huh?" She frowned heavily, confusion evident on her face.

"What your mum means," Bonnibel jumped in, probably sensing my inability to properly explain things. "Our family doesn't use Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday."

"So then why do we even celebre-nate?" My young girl asked.

"For the love of-" I cursed under my breath, immediately regretting it when I heard my son snicker from his spot on the couch.

" _Mum_ , we can still hear you," Nate sniggered, his face behind his book.

"Shut it, smart arse." I said pointedly to my son. "We _**cell-E-bRate**_ to spend time with family."

"We spend time with family _all_ the time though," Serana continued.

"Do you not want your bloody presents?" I finally snapped, narrowing my eyes at my daughter. My slight accent slipped in my frustrated moment, and I saw my wife swallow. I shook my head. "Seriously, Bonnie? It's been how many years."

"Love does funny things to a person's body," Bonnibel simply laughed. I sighed and stood from my seat going to sit in front of my daughter.

"Look, Serana," I spoke to her, her bright blue eyes lit with excitement. They always were; she got that from her mom. "We celebrate Christmas as a special day to pay attention to our loved ones. It's not every day I get to spend the _whole_ day with you guys, is it?"

"No," Serana shook her head to emphasize. "You usually have to work a lot."

"That's right, I do," I nodded, folding my legs and placing my hands on my shins. "But Christmas Eve and Christmas, I take _two_ days off so I can hang out with you guys. _And_ I even get you presents. Do I do that everyday?"

"No," Serana shook her head again. "Only on birthdays!"

"That's right," I smiled at the little girl. She was missing one of her front teeth, noticeable when she smiled back. "So, Christmas is a special day where Mummy doesn't have to work as much. And then, Mummy and Mommy go get you guys gifts."

"But what about _Santa_?" Serana asked, frowning. "He gets us gifts too."

"I…" I paused, blinking. I turned to look at Bonnibel, with pursed lips.

"Your Mum and I get you _extra_ gifts," Bonnibel hugged the small girl sitting in her lap. Serana squealed happily, wiggling in her mother's arms. "If Santa had to get so many gifts for _every child in the world_ , that would be really hard, wouldn't it?"

"I guess," Serana said. She looked at her fingers, seemingly counting with a frown. "That would be… like a _bajillion_ presents."

"It would definitely be a lot," Bonnibel laughed, placing her cheek against Serana's hair. "So us parents have to help him out."

"But then who gets you presents?" Serana asked, wrapping her small arms around Bonnibel's.

"You guys are enough presents for me," Bonnibel planted a kiss against Serana's head, smiling happily at me. "And your Mum."

"You're being a sap," I laughed, despite the fact that I leaned over to place a small kiss on her lips.

"Ewwwww~" Serana stuck her tongue out. "Don't _kiss_ with _me_ here!"

"That's my wife, brat," I leaned my head down to look my daughter in the eye, pointing my index finger towards Bonnibel. "I'll kiss her all I want. I love that woman."

"But not with _me_ here!" Serana continued, shaking her head with her face scrunched up. "It's _gross_ , Mum!"

"Yeah, well," I snickered. "One day you're gonna find someone you want to kiss all the time. And when you do, I'm going to call _you_ gross."

"Eugh!" Serana faked a gag. "I'm not gonna kiss _anybody!_ "

"We'll see about that, kid," I leaned back, chuckling when Bonnibel smiled at me. "You don't get to pick who you like."

"Dean says that _his_ Pop kisses _everybody_ ," Serana said. I could hear Nathan stifle a snicker behind me. "Eugene says that Uncle Maw-sall, is a… _dee_ -gen-irate!"

"A de-gen-er-ate?" I said slowly. Bonnibel shot me a small glare and I blanched. "Aw, I mean, don't use that word Serana."

"Why not?" Serana frowned. "Eugene said it, not me."

"No, but you just said it too." I said, shaking my head.

" _No_ , **Eugene** said it!" Serana asserted. "Not _me_!"

"Oi, lower your voice you little bastard!" I barked.

"Marceline!" Bonnibel hissed, shooting me a much larger glare. Nathan broke into a fit of giggles behind us, unable to hide his face in his book as his shoulders shook.

"My bad, my bad," I said, holding up two defensive hands. "Serana, don't rep-"

"What's a _bastard_?" Serana asked loudly. Bonnibel pursed her lips, anger in her eyes evident.

"-eat what I just said." I finished in a small sigh.

"How come Uncle Maw-sall kisses everyone?" Serana continued the previous conversation and I rubbed my palm against my forehead.

* * *

Merry Christmas everybody!

Hope everyone gets what they asked for this year, and then some! :)


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